Trench in the media…yet again

Online, teen is praised for alleged bomb plot:

Well, well, well. Look who made it into the media again. Yours truly. This time for the Andrew Osantowski case. But it’s factually incorrect as usual. While I appreciate that the article is trying to show how that there are kids like Osantowski out there that worship the Columbine killers, I have to take the Detroit Free Press to task for a couple of things…

“I don’t know about the rest of you mindless self-righteous people out there, but I, for one, salute Mr. Osantowski,” a posting signed by someone identified as The_Grandest_Dragon wrote on the Web site The Trenchcoat Chronicles .

The domain name is taken from the Trench Coat Mafia, a group Klebold and Harris belonged to. Although the site’s keeper apparently condemns their killing spree — America’s deadliest school shooting — many postings on the site defend them.

First off, my domain name does not come from “The Trenchcoat Mafia”. I’ve been referring to myself as “TheTrenchcoat” online since 1997.  Secondly, the commenter who called himself The_Grandest_Dragon did, in fact, make that comment, but in his defense he also made the following comment in the same entry the first comment is taken from…

I have been reading your sight for quite some time now, and yeah i guess it has sunk in that im in the wrong. You are right trench, everyone you have talked about on this site, what they have done did nothing to make their lives or anyone else’s any better, and i guess life is just too short to hate everything all the time. Sorry about posting twice, i had a couple of ones after the exlcamation marks, i pressed stop but i guess it went through anyways. You where right and im sorry.

Comment by The_Grandest_Dragon — Friday Sep 24, 2004

Lastly, while the article does correctly state that I do condemn the Columbine killings, that point can’t be stressed enough, the impression the article gives me is that I somehow encourage the pro-Harris and Klebold comments that are left on my site. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While I do attract a large number of what I call “mutants” I leave their comments on my site for a reason. Part of what I’m trying to do here is to show parents and educators that there are kids out there that worship the Columbine killers. Check any one of my entries about Columbine or the mail I receive. Any one of these kids might be your son, daughter, relative, or student. It’s a growing problem that can’t be ignored.

So, If anyone coming to my site from the Detroit Free Press is now aware of the problem that I’m trying to expose, then the article has served a purpose. Other than that, being falsely misrepresented in the media? Yeah, I don’t know what that’s like.

And please do not e-mail the author of the article. I have already done so, expressing my concerns.

UPDATE: I exchanged e-mails with the author of the article, and she was willing to rectify the situation. Also, I accidentally deleted some comments from this entry. I’m monkeying with a new spam blocker and it may have deleted some comments.

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