Untamed tongues a-wagging on the web

Tired of only reading gossip about Paris and her pals and yearn to get the dirt on your friends and neighbors? The folks behind GossipReport.com certainly hope so. "We are the only site that focuses on gossip of the noncelebrity," said Ashley Murphy, the website's director of media relations, who also pointed out, "We don't create gossip, we just organize it." That's an important legal distinction to make, since Section 230 of the federal 1996 Communications Decency Act doesn't hold websites liable for what's posted by anonymous visitors on their online forums. But just because it's legal doesn't make it ethical. As James 3:5 says about our untamed tongues, "How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!" Imagine that blaze multiplied many times over on the Internet.