Thursday, August 4, 2011

Operation Delego

(Image featured on "Massive Child Pornography Ring Busted" on RT originally from ttp://lifeglobe.net) When people hear the word "Dream" they often think of clouds, happiness, a place where fantasies come to true. "Dreamboard" an online bulletin board was the opposite of what one would think of a dream. I would personally describe it as the most disgusting, horrendous, evil, and sickening think I have ever heard of. The online bulletin board, again in my opinion, should have been named "Hellboard" because that is what it was for young children and infants under the age of 12, the men that ran the site made their lives hell.


"Dreamboard" (created in 2008 and shut down in 2011) was an online bulletin board which shared violent child and infant pornography to its approximately 600 members. Charlie Savage of the New York Times described the members as "a sophisticated global network of pedophiles who traded pornographic videos and images of children as young as infants over the Internet, using encryption and proxy servers to evade detection". Members were found in 13 countries over 5 continents. The website had four levels of membership "the highest level — "Super VIP" — was reserved for those who produced their own material" according to USA Today. Seventy-two people were arrested, 13 have already pleaded guilty and will be spending 30 years to life in prison.

I read the story on 5 different news sources, the first 3 being the New York Times, BBC, USA Today and the last two being RT (Russia Today) and die Welt. The New York Times is the most respected metropolitan newspaper in the country. BBC is Britain's public service broadcaster, having a long history of being a reliable news source in Europe. USA Today is the most read national paper in the US. RT or Russia Today is state funded Russian based news source that broadcasts in four different languages, it presents news from the Russian perspective. Die Welt (the World) is a German liberal paper. I chose the last two sources because I wanted an international perspective on the story.

Each one of these news sources described "Dreamboard's" history and how it functioned. USA Today and the NY Times did the best in describing how the website functioned. BBC and the NY Times were the only two to name all of the 13 countries where arrests were made, die Welt only listed the Western European countries closest to Germany, including Germany itself. BBC, RT and die Welt were the only ones to call the investigation by its name "Operation Delego". Die Welt used USA Today as a source, therefore it is very similar to the USA Today article.


It is hard for me to describe which source presented the story the best, or the most densely. Each article used terms such as "authorities", and included quotes from these "authorities" (the Attorney General Eric Holder, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to name a few), these quotes described the website to be "horrific" and as a "nightmare" for the young children who were abused and again each article described how the website functioned. The NY Times, USA Today and RT all ended their articles with a quote threatening to find anyone who is still running similar websites.



I would recommend reading all 5 (or four since one is in German) articles in order to receive the full story and the most information. Each article did touch on different aspects of the case but no two articles included the same information and not one article included all of the facts.

Sources:






1 comment:

  1. This story makes me sick to my stomach. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that people in the world get pleasure out of seeing ANYONE get abused, let alone young children! Some people are truly corrupt. These people deserve the 30+ years they are facing. Interesting how Die Welt only commented on the arrests that were made in the countries closest to Germany, and how NY Times and BBC were the only two to list all 13 countries. As much as I love the internet and the freedom that comes with it, stories like this make me wonder if some sort of censorship is needed or even possible...

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