Words hurt too

As a victim of sometimes cruel and relentless childhood bullying, like many children were, I always thought of that phrase as preposterous. The words didn’t just hurt; they were devastating. However, in the end, as awful as they were, as upset as I got, the words were later forgotten. And even to this day, I can’t tell you specifically what was said.

Unfortunately, Sunil Tripathi and Mike Mulugeta cannot say the same.

In the midst of the search for the Boston Marathon bomber, what I found so concerning, besides the devastation, was the initial lack of a suspect. But while I was waiting for the next major development on the television, others took it upon themselves to look into the case. On social networking sites like Reddit and 4chan, everyday users dedicated portions of the platforms to investigating the bombings. Some scanned images trying to point out suspicious individuals; others tuned in to police scanners, hanging on every word.

At first it seemed like the collaborative online effort was a success. A woman claimed that a man in surveillance pictures looked remarkably similar to her high school classmate and Brown University student Sunil Tripathi. Meanwhile, those listening in on police scanners heard, "Last name: Mulugeta, M-U-L-U-G-E-T-A, M as in Mike, Mulugeta." By the end of the day, the two names were spread virally, and the Internet community could proudly pat itself on the back. It seemed like only a matter of time until the police, in light of these new identifications, would catch those responsible.

But the names the FBI released that Thursday were not those of Tripathi or Mulugeta. Instead, the names were Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Although we now know that neither Mulugeta nor Tripathi was responsible, it seems that the damage had already been done, as reported by both The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Tripathi, the student from Brown, had been missing for over a month — as a lost person, not a felon of any kind. When people began to suspect him as the mastermind behind the heinous plot, they began to write cruel and harsh comments on the Facebook page “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi” — started by his family a month ago to aid in his return — to the point where his parents had to take down the page. The search for their son was irreparably damaged.

The worst part is that amateur Internet investigators were not the only ones responsible for the tidal wave of misinformation. On Wednesday at 1:48 p.m., CNN’s John King announced in a breaking news segment on-air that an arrest had been made — only to be contradicted at 2:28 p.m. by former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes, who claimed that “there ha[d] been no arrest, and in fact a suspect ha[d] not been identified by name yet.” The following morning, the New York Post had the sensationalist headline “Bag Men” and claimed that the Feds were seeking “[the] two pictured,” who turned out to be a 17-year-old track athlete and his friend. Meanwhile, a Saudi national, who later proved to be completely innocent, was reported throughout the day as a “person of interest.”

The motive behind incidents such as the Boston Marathon bombing, the underwear bomber, 9/11 or any other form of terrorist attack is to instill fear into our lives. And although, as a society, we try not to become victims of our fear, we unfortunately fall into the bigger trap of avoiding this fear through “helping,” in the form of near witch-hunts that have proved to hurt rather than help the cause. Although it is tempting to publish that new headline or story in the hopes of coming to some form of closure, we need to restrain ourselves before jumping the gun.

To those who look back in the future, it will be how we acted during this time of tragedy that will define us. And in those moments, we will see the true beauty of our society. How people went toward, instead of away from, the bombing to help those injured. How runners, reportedly, ran to Massachusetts General Hospital to donate blood to the victims. And how the media could have kept the people informed, not just quickly, but accurately.

In these rare moments, the need to publish the newest story or get the most viewers must be suspended in order to give the people what they not only need but deserve: accurate and helpful information. While the call not to forfeit our freedoms or submit to fear is louder and clearer than ever, we must also remember not to forfeit our integrity in the process. If not for ourselves, we should do it for Tripathi, Mulugeta, the Saudi national, the track runner and his friend — the innocent people who have proven that words can certainly hurt.

Benjamin Dinovelli is a freshman from Mystic, Conn. He can be reached at bjd5@princeton.edu.