In response to:
Seems to me that the news rag has opened themselves up to a monstrous liability.
Just days before Christmas, the Journal News out of New York published a story headlined, "Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood?" The Journal News thought it was important to publish the names and addresses of every gun permit holder in Westchester and Rockland counties in the name of public safety and the public's right to know. Turns out, they accomplished the opposite by treating lawful gun permit holders like convicted sex offenders. The story received national attention and put gun permit holders and their non-holding neighbors at risk. Ex-convicts said the Journal News story was a...
How does a newspaper open itself up to liability for publishing publicly available information? Regardless of whether you disagree, or whether other people use that info to commit crimes or perpetrate violence, the content is still protected by the First Amendment. We have a litany of examples in this country where prosecutors wanted to prosecute someone because of rhetoric or information they made public that then led to a third party committing a crime or act of violence. The problem with that theory is that you have to actually establish causation, i.e. you would have to show the jury that the disclosed info CAUSED the crime, not just made it easier/more profitable/etc. That would be pretty tough here.