Today the paper seems to have disappeared and replaced with opinionated television news segments and social media platforms that always dictate the narrative rather than allow a reasonably developed opinion. We rarely, if ever, witness an errors and corrections segment on the 6 o’clock news or an apology statement on social media platforms. We see reporters seeking pro-registry supporters for an eight-second impromptu camera appearance, citing, “they need to be on the registry!”

Recently in the Eastern part of North Carolina, people were accused of sex crimes. The names of the accused were splattered all over the television and social media sites. What makes this interesting is that the people indicted or criminally charged had their charges dropped because of false statements by victims. You won’t find any section marked errors and corrections to restore dignity to the accused. Instead, they are forced to rebuild their shattered lives while the same newsagents go about their business as if nothing happened with no regard for the harm they levied.

What makes matters worse is that the news agencies and social media platforms that created a panic culture of a predator on the loose quickly forgot about the true predator that made the false claim. It seems incredible that news and social media are habitually responsible for maintaining a false narrative about sex crimes when it appears that, in some cases, there is nothing to lose by “victims” reporting a false claim. If police and prosecutors won’t punish those for making false police reports, what is the incentive for the news and social media to post an error or correction?

If the registry was supposed to keep the public safe from predatory sexual offenses, then why is it that news, social media, police, prosecutors, and pro-registry allies shield “predators that pretend to be victims” who break the law and lie to communities about false sexual claims? Maybe this is why public trust in police, social media, the press, and our legal system is deteriorating at a rapid level. There isn’t a big rubber band or plastic sleeve to keep this mess together.

For reasons that these three crime-fighting quill-smiths either overlooked or cautiously avoided, such a law, if ever passed (and that’s dubious, at best), would have to be written in such a way that it only applied to a registered citizen’s prior residences. And, as time passed, these residences would grow in number and ubiquity as registered citizens move here and yon. Fast forward 20 or 30 years and there would likely be registered addresses all over the state, and lots of unregistered people living in the former addresses of registered citizens. These innocent people would have no idea why and no legal remedy to free themselves, or their property, from the stigma of registration.

Or let’s think of another “hypothetical” that is more likely to suffer from the stupendous and absurdly moronic opinion that has issued from the mind of not one, but THREE, “educated” journalists in Halifax County. My registered address was once the same as my mother’s. Now that I have moved, her home address is no longer associated with my registration. That’s the way it should be.

But I do occasionally visit my mother. And I typically stay the night in her home at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes even for the New Year holiday. It would be tremendously burdensome for me to track down a legitimate law enforcement agency on Christmas Eve just for the ridiculous purpose of letting them know (and ostensibly the entire population of the planet) that I was planning to spend the night at my former registered residence which just also happens to be my mom’s, a home built by her dad and sitting on property that has been home to the family since the 1820s.

The Herald‘s suggested fix to this newly discovered “loophole” would not serve any legitimate public safety purpose but WOULD merely expose an elderly citizen of North Carolina to potential threats and harassment by the very people the editorial staff is likely to inflame: gun totin’ sycophants who remain whipped into a psychotic frenzy by the constant drumbeat of sex offender paranoia that has gripped the nation for more than two decades (beginning with the now laughable histrionics of alleged satanic rituals involving children in the late 1980s).

There is not a great deal to worry about here. Not only is the Daily Herald‘s readership abysmally low, but the suggested fix would likely find its way to the first garbage receptacle in legislative bill drafting after staff attorneys got done with it. But what is most disturbing is how far out of touch the media increasingly seems amidst a growing consensus among legal and academic experts that our nation’s policies regarding people formerly convicted of a sex offense are based on false statistical data and an unreasonable (and unsupported) level of fear among rank and file Americans.

But it’s that very fear that the editorial staff intends on fostering. Fear sells newspapers. And boy do they ever need to sell a few!