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Where’s The Good Judgment?

Well, now I've heard it all.

In Arkansas a defendant rightfully and successfully argued to overturn a jury judgment using the tweets of a juror during the trial to show that he had a bias against the company before and during the trial procedings. 

Sexting is a new word to highlight the distribution of nude photos snapped with mobile phones and MMS'd around. One young girl sent a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend. When they broke up he emailed the photo all around the school. Jesse was vilified and verbally abused at school to the point where she committed suicide.

Two boys in MA are in deep trouble and may be declared as sexual offenders requiring their listing in a public database and otherwise destroying their lives (this may be justified)… and two young men in VA are suffering consequences of being charged with distributing child pornography.

Don't forget the CEO of Whole Foods, who demonstrated poor judgment when posting online comments about his company. He blogged under his wife's firstname spelled backwards: Harobed and nearly lost his job. 

THINK PEOPLE!

Even with email. Never ever flame anyone in email. It always comes back to bite you.

Good judgment often escapes the brainiest and most successful of us all. I often recount the Bill Gates story I read in the Wall Street Journal over a decade ago. It was the transcript of the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial brought by Netscape.

PROSECUTOR: Mr Gates, did you ever say that Microsoft should destroy the competition, or crush them like bugs?

GATES: No, I never said that or wrote that.

PROSECUTOR: Exhibit K – a transcript of an email Mr Gates sent to the executive leadership of Microsoft on XXX YY, ZZZZ. Please read the highlighted paragraph:

GATES: READING, We should crush them like bugs. We will destroy the competition.

PROSECUTOR: Thank you Mr Gates.

So many things in life have consequences. We just need to be prepared for them BEFORE they come back.