[neilk]

I'm disappointed in Wired for repeating the nonsense that Star was arrested for a "hoax explosive device". She had a shirt with blinking lights on it.

EDIT: On second read, Wired's statement is technically true; that's the justification the police gave for arresting her. But as written, it implies that Star intended such a hoax.

[citricsquid]

Assuming the author of this article only has the previous Boston Globe article to go on that is what appears to be the case. I looked around and the response from Star seems to conflict a lot with the article, so either the police lied (seems most likely) or she did, either way I don't think you can criticise the author of this article for what they said or their tone as the Boston Globe presents it in exactly the same way.

Interview here: http://boingboing.net/2008/09/22/star-simpson-one-yea.html

[neilk]

It's Wired. They purport to be a magazine that knows something about technology and the people that make it. The quality of the mag has gone up and down over the years, but I think it's fair to say they shouldn't be relying on Boston.com to do the legwork on a story like this.

And even so, reporting the claims of the police without qualification is something even a rookie reporter isn't supposed to do. The fact that the judge gave her a path to dismiss the charges, after sentencing her to a trivial amount of community service, is also pretty relevant. If you mention one fact the other ought to follow.