Anna Canzano kicks off the 2014 Shiitake Awards season

I haven't even finished finalizing the 2013 Shiitake Awards, but Anna Canzano of KATU News is already starting the new year by using sex offender issues for ratings. Canzano is already a veteran to this site, but this may be her worst effort to date. Long story short, Canzany harasses a registered citizen for allegedly helping to work on a company Facebook page. Wow.

What she actually did was a crime. Will the police lock her up? They should.

http://www.katu.com/news/investigators/Sex-offender-declines-to-talk-about-why-he-has-prohibited-Facebook-page-238550691.html


Sex offender refuses to talk about why he has prohibited Facebook page

By Anna Canzano, On Your Side Investigator Published: Jan 2, 2014 at 10:32 PM PST Last Updated: Jan 3, 2014 at 12:49 PM PST

PORTLAND, Ore. -- His name is ******, and he's not exactly pleased to see us. He's showing up to check in with his probation officer downtown, ordered to appear because of what we found and shared with Multnomah County authorities.

I introduce myself and ask him why he's using Facebook when he's not supposed to, because he is a convicted sex offender. He accuses us of harassing him then flees from the camera.

At first glance, *****'s Facebook activity looks normal enough -- a normal profile, with some photos of Miller with family and friends. Among his “likes,” the bikini barista stand, Twin Perks Espresso. 
The profile is linked to a company page called ******.

The problem with both of these pages? Convicted sex offenders are not allowed to use Facebook, according to the company's policies, and ***** was convicted of second-degree rape in 2002. He served nearly nine years in prison and has been on probation ever since. He’s also been ordered to do community service.

In May last year, *****s probation officer learned he'd created a Facebook page for his company and told ***** to take it down. Multnomah County spokesman David Austin told me ***** complied. But here we are eight months later and ***** has not only a company Facebook page but also that personal profile.

I got a hold of **** by phone earlier in the day Thursday. I wanted to know if he was aware of Facebook policy, if it was of concern to him, and whether there was some term of his supervision that prohibited him from using social media.

He told me, "I'm not at liberty to comment on a criminal record I may or may not have. I work for a company that manages a Facebook page."

Within an hour after we spoke, his personal profile had been changed. The personal photos were gone; it suddenly looked a lot more like his company page.

I contacted Multnomah County to learn the rules of his probation. That led to his required appearance downtown and Mr. Miller running away from us.

Late in the day, I was contacted via Facebook by someone alerting me to yet another Facebook page ******apparently manages for a company called *****. There are multiple photos of Miller on the page and multiple indications he runs the page. I'll be sharing this new information with Multnomah County.

Based on what I'd already told them, county spokesman David Austin says ***** will likely be punished with community service.

At last check, *****'s personal profile on Facebook has been removed entirely. The page for *****'s ***** remains active, as does the page for *****.

Facebook doesn't screen for sex offenders per se. It relies on users to report sex offenders to them and provide some kind of proof -- a news article, court documents -- to show someone's conviction for a sex crime.

Anna Canzano of KATU 2 Portland Oregon

Does Facebook have a "Dislike" button? If so, I want to press it :)

This is Anna Canzano. Back on Groundhog's Day, Miss Canzano wrote a piece for the local media called "The Sex Offender Next Door." The promo begins with an ominous sounding "secks o-fenders, next door!" It is almost laughable.

Ironic statement given KATU only gives us a fraction of the information too.

Then Canzano supplements with a fluff piece designed to scare the crap out of every Portlander who saw the ominous promo.

That's because Oregonians don't find it necessary to know where those married couples caught doing it  in the park live.

Online search won't display every sex offender in yourneighborhood

By Anna Canzano, KATU News Published: Feb 2, 2012 at 11:00 PM PST

PORTLAND, Ore. – Stephanie Miller takes the safety of her three kids very seriously. When she heard there was a sex offender living in her neighborhood, Miller went looking for more information. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a rumor,” she said. “What I really wanted was to find out what he did.”

What Miller discovered, however, was that Oregonians who search for sex offenders in their neighborhoods are not getting the whole picture and walk away with a false sense of security.

Searching Oregon’s sex offender website showed “no offenders found” within a one-mile radius of Miller’s home. A call to the people who run that database for the state turned up a much different result. “I thought we were looking for one person in the neighborhood and when it came back the list was three pages long,” Miller said. “I could not believe how many people, how many sex offenders were surrounding us, to be honest.”

Vi Beaty runs Oregon’s sex offender database and said most people are not aware of how little information the state provides online.  “They’re very surprised Oregon is so limited,” said Beaty. “Oregon posts less than five percent of our registered population.”

That five percent equals approximately 900 of Oregon’s 18,000 registered sex offenders who are on the state’s registry. Those 900 are classified as predatory or sexually violent – and are further deemed by the state as posing the highest risk of re-offending.

By comparison, Washington has about 30 percent of registered sex offenders posted on its website. California posts 75 percent and Idaho posts 100 percent of all registered sex offenders on its website – even those with the lowest level of offenses. Residents of Oregon and Washington have to call or e-mail the state and explain a safety concern in order to get the full list of sex offenders who live in their neighborhoods and the offenders’ addresses.

Miller wants Oregon lawmakers to add more names to the state’s sex offender database so families can be armed with better information about their neighbors. “Obviously people have a right to a second chance and people can change and be reformed,” said Miller. “But that’s not going to be at the expense of my child.”

The gist of the story is she is sounding the alarm over the fact Oregon only lists so-called "high-risk" offenders, something that isn't news at all, since Oregonians have known for years the registry only lists Tier 3 offenders. Duh! But it wasn't enough for Anna Canzano to report. She posted a tip sheet on how to stalk.. er, "find" registrants on Facebook as well, dodging criticism of her work and "standing by" her work even after being repeatedly questioned if she truly supports low risk offenders.

I wonder if she's on the list because the thought of ignorance breeding is offensive to me.

She then proceeded to argue with her detractors like a junior high school student. Thanks to Anna's shoddy reporting, a vigilante used the information to get two registrants kicked out of their residents, and that woman thanked Anna for her story.

And yet, Anna denies causing harm with her shoddy reporting.

 If that isn't Shiitake Worthy, I don't know what is.

Don't worry, Anna. I will.