Megan Had It Coming Blog: Google And Lori Drew

According to Lori Drew's attorney, Ms. Drew is having a harder time getting Google to close the blog Megan Had It Coming than it was for her to shut down her MySpace account featuring a fake 16-year-old boy named Josh or claim the statement she gave to the St. Charles police was incorrect.

Drew's attorney, Jim Briscoe, wrote to the St. Charles Journal on the subject.

"Contrary to the statement by Randy Bierce of 'Death by a 1000 Papercuts' I found that it is not as easy to have a blog shut down with the click of a button."[1]

Briscoe said that Lori Drew has contacted Google and complained about the blog, Megan Had It Coming.

December 4, 2007 4:48 PM Anonymous said... This blog is fake. It was created by an individual not associated with this case just for laughs. If you think that this site is offensive, blame the true creator not Lori Drew. Report it to Google and the Drew's attorney at: (636) 947-1122 [4]

The blog originated back on November 18th, almost a month ago. The name of the blog, Megan Had It Coming, immediately garnered attention across the blogosphere with its offensive name referring to Megan Meier, a thirteen-year-old girl who committed suicide last year.

December 8, 2007 6:11 AM Edna Bambrick said... I AM REPORTING ALL ANTI-LORI DREW POSTS TO THE FBI! YOU PEOPLE ARE IN BIG BIG TROUBLE! [4]

The first post, "Set the Record Straight," the author claimed to be a "schoolmate" of Megan. The second post was put up a week later. The subject about who was "really at fault" in the matter of suicides. The third post, "I'm Lori Drew," showed up the same day Jack Banas, the St. Charles County Prosecutor announced no charges would be forthcoming against Lori Drew in the Megan Meier case.

Lori Drew was revealed as a person who was more than peripherally involved in the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide story. Megan's parents found out six weeks after Megan's death that the 16-year-old boy "Josh" Megan had been chatting with on MySpace for six weeks was really a neighborhood woman, 46-year-old Lori Drew.

December 4, 2007 5:44 PM sickened and saddened said... To the creator of this blog: Congratulations on being an even sorrier excuse for a human being than Lori Drew herself. [4]

The third post was titled, "I'm Lori Drew." The author of the post went into "detail" of how they set up the MySpace account with the fake 16-year-old Josh Evans. How they wanted to protect their daughter from the "monster" next door, 13-year-old Megan Meier.

Now I had nothing but sympathy for Megan's condition. But my sympathy has limits. When you come after my daughter and try to hurt her like that, my patience wears out. This troubled child was no longer able to poison my baby in person, so she decided to reach out on the Internet to do it instead. Like any parent, when you see the ill-behaved child next door causing trouble for your family, you want to wring the neck of the parents who let it happen. But, as Megan's parents made it clear earlier, they were not about to come down on their precious Megan. I had no recourse with them. And, forbidding the children from seeing each other was not effective because Megan could simply harass my daughter online.[4]

The overwhelming majority of the thousands of comments posted on the Megan Had It Coming blog were those of outrage and disgust. Some believed that the author was Lori Drew, after all, Drew had admitted in a police report filed with the St. Charles Police Department that she had engineered the fake Josh along with an 18-year-old temporary employee. Other readers reasoned that the blog was a fake, a hoax, but a very clever hoax, the writer knew too many details of the case.

Anonymous said... I'm going to question whether this is actually Lori Drew... because I choose not to believe that anyone would be so stupid as to think that creating a blog like this will in any way vindicate them. If this is someone trying to make Lori Drew look even worse, don't bother; it's not possible. If this is actually Drew or one of her supporters trying to justify her actions, don't bother; there is no justification. Lori Drew should be grateful that God doesn't smite people anymore. [4]

The "I'm Lori Drew" thread popped up on December 3rd. By December 5th thousands of comments had been posted on the thread with many of the posters writing that they were going to contact the authorities and Lori Drew's attorney to get the blog shut down. It wasn't until December 5th that the authorities responded:

The sheriff and the prosecutor have confirmed they're now looking into a blog site which recounts in great detail the entire Megan Meier saga. St. Charles County prosecutor, Jack Banas, is calling on the department’s "cyber" crimes investigators to find out who's behind the site; the very title of which may offend you: "Megan Had It Coming". The title is followed by the statement, "I'm Lori Drew."

On December 9th the three posts on Megan Had It Coming were taken down by the author replaced with the "last" post, "The Final Story." It may not be the "last" post as the writer of this blog tends to not want to play "by the rules."

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2007
The Final Story
It really hurts to do this, considering everything everone has been through, but I have to do it. I know there's been a lot of confusion about this blog and me, so I want to lay it all to rest.

The "suspense" was over. It wasn't Lori Drew but an Internet "troll" who hung around the comment section looking for readers who would commend him for his "brilliance." He posted as an innocent "bystander" who "loved, loved, loved" the blog from day one. The troll or fake Lori Drew had forgotten something important. The name on his comment was linked to the Megan Had It Coming blog profile page.

There was no party, no one to cheer and clap him on. Readers were unkind to him and failed to give him his due instead they wrote that his using the Megan Meier tragedy as a hoax to garner attention was repulsive.

"Jeff" seemed particularly dismayed that we summed up the episode by writing:

The hoax-monger purports to "demonstrate the collective stupidity of thousands of Internet users who confuse replying to blogs for having actual intellectual discourse."

We're not so sure about all that.

It did demonstrate that the jokester had something on his hands other than the remains of a creepy masturbatory experience: time.

"Jeff" mentioned it several times, including once in the original sources of the MHIC entry in Encyclopedia Dramatica.

DBKP asked, "Where was Blogger? Where was Google?"

The answer is right where they always were: in their offices. One reader, Beowulf, went so far as to present us with a timeline prior to the troll outing himself. The timeline was fairly accurate--it was off by 24 hours. It gives an insight into Google's policies concerning offensive material and how they deal with it.

On December 5, two days after the "I'm Lori Drew" post, he commented that it would be down within 48 hours. After being reminded of that two days later, Beowulf advised us: "Briscoe only learned of the blog yesterday." He then outlined that the blog's offensive material would be down by the end of the weekend.

It proved to be accurate. The offending posts were removed by the author on Sunday evening.

Beowulf's final comment on the matter to us was illuminating.

you need to educate yourselves about take down procedures for offensive content at Google and other websites. When Google receives a complaint they contact the blog owner and ask them to remove the content. In many cases people post illegal or offensive things without understanding the terms of service.

In some cases the take down claim is false and the blog author is able to demonstrate their true identity. In this case it is very likely the blog owner got such a take down notice from Google and removed the content to avoid having the account closed. This is standard operating procedure thoughout the industry.

December 9, 2007 9:58 PM ThisIsRidiculous said... Rebecca, This blog is not written by Lori Drew. It's a hoax. What bothered me about this blog is that (a) It made light of a suicide. I remember some of the comments made by some of these people who 'did it for the lulz', including stating that Megan needed to be kicked out of the gene pool because she couldn't take some bullying. (b) This blog stirred up even more anger and vitriolism against the Drews. I remember people even attacking 13-yr-old Sarah Drew. Sure, it was all for the 'lulz' as far as this author and his minions were concerned, but this blog must have caused even more angst and anger against the Drews. Jeff, you should be ashamed of yourself. After all your claims that you don't agree with what Lori did, you don't see how offensive this blog is and how it could up the ante from the online vigilantes? I think people who lack basic human emotions and do not care about the consequences of their reactions (and God knows that the Drews have been targetted enough by their community to the point that their police department is overworked) should be amongst the first to be kicked off the gene pool. [4]

The blog is still up. According to the news reports the authorities are investigating who is behind the blog.

December 8, 2007 8:50 AM
Anonymous said...

I'm pretty certain that the blogger writing this site is not Lori Drew and that this entire site is a hoax.

That said, I am increasingly bothered that law enforcement is taking a more vested interest in going after Ms. Drew's tormentors than they are in going after the late Megan's tormentors.

Personally, if this online ragging is the worst that Lori Drew gets, she's getting much less punishment than she deserves. [4]

Google, the home of the Megan Had It Coming Blog, was contacted about the blog and informed that someone was impersonating Lori Drew. Google responded that they were looking into the matter. Evidently allowing blogs that impersonate someone and print objectionable material such as the Megan Had It Coming Blog are allowed by Google as the blog is still going.

December 8, 2007 12:17 PM
raven_wilde said...

This is a hoax people: Blogger poses as women linked to MySpace suicide
Stop feeding this sick person's need for attention, which is all it is... they have latched onto a tragedy and used it to make their own pathetic life somehow more exciting.
For shame, for shame, leave all the families involved in this horrible incident alone, because whatever it is that they did or did not do that led to Megan's death, you are doing a far worse and much more pathetic thing in creating this blog. I hope someday you realize that.[4]

The "Troll" was able to put together a "fake" Lori Drew persona not unlike Lori Drew putting together the fake 16-year-old Josh persona on MySpace. There have been cries that the blogosphere has been responsible for the "victimization" of Lori Drew. While it's true this particular blog did whip readers up into a frenzy of further outrage and disgust in the manner of Ms. Drew's actions the majority of actions taken by "vigilantes" occurred well before the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide story hit the web.

In fact, except for expressions of disgust aimed at Lori Drew's clients, the only "vigilante" actions taken were by the only people who were aware of this story for over a year--Lori Drew's neighbors and those in the immediate area.

Unless you count one broken foosball table, a candlelight vigil and some tire tracks in the yard.

Those were taken by Megan's parents.

Ms. Drew's attorney and the St. Charles County prosecutor have both come to Ms. Drew's defense. But it was Ms. Drew's own actions--the filing of charges, Ms. Drew's urge to "document" any possible "harassment" from Megan's father--that led to the infamous police report where Ms. Drew, well before her attorney came onto the scene, supplied some very interesting details into what, exactly, her participation in the sad story was.

According to the authorities Ms. Drew has broken no laws, what she did was not illegal. The day Megan died Ms. Drew wiped the MySpace Josh account from existence. No such luck with the fake Megan It Coming Blog.

Just ask Jim Briscoe.

By Little Baby Ginn

Source - 1 - St. Charles Journal
Source - 2 - DBKP - MySpace Suicide: Megan Had It Coming Blog Still Going Strong
Source - 3 - Myspace Suicide, Lori Drew, Megan Meier: 'Megan Had It Coming' Blog Being Investigated By Local Authorities
Source - 4 - Megan Had It Coming
5 - Megan Had it Coming: Hoax!
By LBG
commentary,notes: mondoreb
Image [flayme.com]
[note: The MHIC blog was interesting to DBKP only as far as the question remained, "Was the blog's author really Lori Drew?" Since that question was answered with a "no", it's relationship to the story of Megan Meier is now peripheral, at most. It joins other "anti-Megan" blogs which appeared at the time of the story gaining national prominence. The author was interesting only as long as he maintained the charade of being "Lori Drew". As there were some loose ends, this article tried to tie those up and answer a few questions. We hope to give MHIC and its author no more pub.]