We've been following the shocking Tim Lambesis trial since its inception in the spring when Lambesis was caught (allegedly) attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife, Meggan. Sometime around August, the above photo surfaced, in meme form identifying the woman as Meggan Lambesis, to the point that when searching Google Images, you would get that photo as the first one.
There's one problem though… the woman in that photo is not Meggan Lambesis.
Nope! I was tipped off over the weekend by somebody close to As I Lay Dying that the image we are publishing identifying Meggan is actually Weezer bassist Scott Shiner's wife, Jillian. Here's the origin of the photo on Jillian's personal blog. The Shiners also adopted a child from Africa, which leads me to believe that's the reason Jillian was originally identified as Meggan.
I have no idea how the photo was originally circulated, but it ended up on all the major metal sites. Of course, none of us bothered to fact check, because, here is the honest truth: we are not journalists. There are no standards we have to answer to. We are all just a bunch of metal heads who loved metal so much that we started writing about it, and eventually our sites gained enough traction that people assume we are authorities on a certain situation. Ultimately, what you can learn here is that you should question everything you read, even on this site, because who the fuck am I? I am just some schmuck with a blog, and, when it comes to this story, most of my posts came about by incessantly reading about the Lambesis case on local San Diego websites, from reporters who were actually there at the scene, and I was just reporting back to you what I read.
At the same time, many "legitimate" news outlets across the country ran the photo as well, taking the lead from other news sites, leading me to believe they do just as much fact-checking as we do.
Update: An astute MetalSucks reader pointed out that Meggan actually appears in As I Lay Dying’s DVD, This is Who We Are and this is what she looks like:
I would like to formally apologize to Meggan, Jillian Shiner and anybody else we have incorrectly written about. It's moments like this where I realize I am not a journalist or a reporter, I am just some dude with a blog, and a very powerful voice, and as everybody's favorite superhero's uncle once said, with great power comes great responsibility.
For more, see our previous coverage of the Tim Lambesis trial.
