Anonymous Posters May Be Fabricating “Official Statements” –

Paris, Ill. (ECWd) –

Once again, we have to warn people of an anonymous Facebook page purporting to be affiliated with the University of Illinois College of Media (it is not), which typically only reposts news articles from other sources, while sometimes posting things apparently designed to deceive the readers into thinking it comes from an official source.

Such as the case with a recent posting of an “Official Statement” purporting to be from the Fifth Judicial Circuit taking some offense to our recent article on an Edgar County Judge being charged with DUI, among other things, and our quoting what was in a police report we received through the Freedom of Information Act. The fake statement from the court even insinuated it could rise to claims of defamation, which is false, because simply reciting a public record such as a police report can never be considered defamation, inaccurate, misleading, conjecture, nor character assassination. It is a public record. Period.

We asked the Illinois Supreme Court Communications Department and the Fifth Judicial Circuit’s Public Affairs/Information Office if they published or disseminated the statement, and their answer was that “the statement did not come from the Supreme Court Communications Office or the Fifth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge’s Office.”

This was similar to a fake statement purporting to be from the Director of the Illinois State Police, who likewise said it was not from them.

One final word (again) – legitimate, real news/media pages are upfront with their readers, publish who they are (by name), and publish their contact information (see ours here).