Timothy and luoto,
I think what Lon is trying to say is that the media had no right to print any of the persons details - nor was it of any public interest or benefit.
It cannot even be compared to a criminal case where a person is either wanted or has already been arrested.
I defy one person to demonstrate to me anything positive that could have come from publishing the details of the person involved.
To say that the media should not report because there is nothing to report is also short sighted. What the media should do is be sure of its facts and only report what is known to be true (*WMD not withstanding!), of course sometimes we get the news and pictures as they do - but rather than trying to interpret it perhaps they could just report the facts rather than come to their own, quite often, ill informed conclusions. How many times have you sat as an aviation professional (or semi) and cringed when an aviation expert on TV has given their views with little or no basis of fact.
Is that the world we want to build for ourselves? Or would we rather tackle the real criminals rather than taking out the soft targets?
When was the last time you flew in a commercial aircraft? And when was the last time you flew to the US? It is my humble opinion that the terrorists have already won esp wrt commercial aviation in the US, no queueing near the toilet, no flight deck visits, no metal cutlery - what about the other things people carry on board?
When you change the way you live or work to meet a threat that you cant even find or define - then you are already beaten.