An Instagram post about Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to wealthy communities in Marin County, CA, turned one California student newspaper into a free-speech flash point. The students say they were just doing their homework.
www.wired.com
Ben Mueller’s assignment for his journalism class was to tell a news story—any news story—in the form of an extended Instagram slideshow. He chose to comb the Epstein files for links to his home county—and he found thousands. wired.com
Most of them were trivial, but a few things stood out: a 2014 art gala in Sausalito that Epstein helped promote; a meeting with Woody Allen in Tiburon; and—above all—a 2013 email exchange between Epstein and a woman from a modeling agency called Mill Valley Connection. wired.com
Two days later, on February 12, Mueller posted his story to the Instagram feed of the Redwood Bark, his school’s student-run publication. More than 4,000 people liked the story. The comments filled up with praise: “This is the kind of journalism we need.” wired.com
About a week and a half later, his journalism teacher called with bad news: Bonnouvrier, the modeling agent, was threatening to sue the district. And now the superintendent was demanding that the Bark either redact Bonnouvrier’s name or delete the slide entirely. wired.com
So the next day, during their lunch break at school, the students lawyered up. Find out what happened next here: wired.com
www.wired.com