Letter To The Editor: Posts On Message Board Were 'Defamatory'

To the Editor:

It has been brought to my attention that someone has been posting on the message board Cranford Talk using my name Tina Renna. This person stole my identity and made disparaging remarks about the Cranford Police Department. They have come to my family’s aid in the past, and I have the utmost respect for the Cranford Police Department.

I do not post on anonymous message boards, nor do I read them. I am all for freedom of speech, especially when someone has the courage to speak out in person or to sign their name to what they write. I am also not against negative parity, but posts on this board concerning me have been outright defamatory in the past and I’ve written to the site administrator to no avail. I’d like the Cranford community to understand how this site is run. In my opinion it is a blight on the Cranford Community and does not reflect the true nature of its residents.

The below is an email received in 2009 from the Cranford Talk Administrator David Ferreira, who I understand doesn’t live in Cranford. It was in response to my asking him to have certian posts removed, to my knowledge they never were.

“CranfordTalk.org is an unmoderated messageboard where I only serve to provide the site maintenance. My role at the site only involves basic things like deleting spam, keeping the site readable, and responding to reports of illegal speech (such as death threats). I specifically do not make it my job to judge posts. In fact, I rarely ever read every post. As a result each user is responsible for the things they enter onto the website. As the provider of the forum I do not take responsibility for the things said by othersBecause of that, I rarely delete posts. With that said, if you feel that something has been said that contains libel, I will certainly comply with a court order to divulge the unique identifying information that I can access through my role on the site. Frankly though, a public figure such as yourself is exactly the type of discussion I would expect on the site by those who choose to remain anonymous.

If you would like me to take a look at the thread, please direct me to it, as I will not likely come across it on my own  In the meantime, to better understand how the messageboard operates, you should read the Terms and Conditions prepared by me at the following link.”

To sum up I’ve been defamed and impersonated on CranfordTalk.org and my only recourse is to spend my time to 1. File a civil action & 2. Read their “Terms & Conditions.”

Tina Renna

Canford