Anyway, basically Cosgrove is upset that Maura actually told people about the bill he introduced without first running it by him. He seems to believe that's actually an obligation. And, more frightening, Nightline's reporter seems to sympathize with that view, calling it an "ethical question." The line in bold is the most stunning.
JOHN COSGROVE
I was dealing definitely with a person who has an audience.
JOHN DONVAN
(Voice Over) Cosgrove says that places her in the media. And the media has obligations.
JOHN COSGROVE
The big problem I have with what happened there -and it's that that person, again, never contacted me.
MORA KUEHNE
I don't think that any citizen should have to wait for a legislator's permission to share her concerns about legislation. I mean, it's - once you introduce a bill into the legislature, it's part of the public record.
JOHN COSGROVE
I've dealt with newspapers and radio stations and television media. And I have yet to have one reporter just run a story without running it by me.
MORA KUEHNE
I'm not a broadcaster. I take far more license from an editorial position than I would expect any reporter to do because I'm an activist.
JOHN DONVAN
(Off Camera) Well, Kuehne did send Cosgrove one e-mail. The one he explained he didn't see for several days. But beyond that, there is something of an ethical question. Kuehne is, as she says, a private citizen whose blog never attracted more than a few hundred readers on any regular basis. But if she has the power to be read around the world, as this episode proves she has, is she still just some private citizen? Does she have an obligation to tell someone she's writing about that she has an audience?
MORA KUEHNE
I don't think so, no.
JOHN DONVAN
(Off Camera) Because?
MORA KUEHNE
Because we're not in a separate category of human beings. We're not in a separate category of citizens. We're just citizens with our concern. I mean, frankly, my web-site got, maybe, you know, a few hundred, at most hits a day, before this happened.
JOHN DONVAN
(Voice Over) For the record, Kuehne was scrupulously accurate, linking to the original text of Cosgrove's bill. But as her story spread at Internet speed and others added their commentaries, inaccuracies crept in. Kuehne acknowledges that.
MORA KUEHNE
It becomes like a game of telephone that you played in the third grade. So, by the time the 15th person gets the story. So, there were websites that linked to mine that definitely didn't get the whole story. They got it wrong.
JOHN DONVAN
(Voice Over) And that accounts for some of what Cosgrove experienced.
I've had numerous stories done about me without a damn thing being run by me, and I don't actually see anything wrong with that (except when they just make shit up of course).