Chapter 1527

Hearing Jameson's firm tone, George looked at the newspaper in his hand again, and then faced Jameson and asked: "Mr. Jameson, you said before that the victim contributed to the Daily Bugle. What type of articles did he mainly publish?"

But at this moment, Jameson showed an awkward expression. He rubbed his hands and said: "To tell you the truth, Sheriff George, I also had some conflicts with Huji. Because of this, we two terminated our cooperation half a year ago. The reason is that I didn't quite agree with some of the viewpoints in the articles he published."

Jameson pulled George to the other side of the crime scene. It was relatively quiet here, and there were not so many irrelevant people coming and going, but he still lowered his voice and said to George.

"Huji originally wrote biographies of election figures. He had been working in the political news industry for ten years. But one day, he suddenly found me and said he saw the news about Spider-Man I published in the Daily Bugle and was very interested in some of the viewpoints."

"We two talked happily for an afternoon, exchanged views on superheroes, and found that we had many similarities, so I invited him to write an article about superheroes for the Daily Bugle."

"What I didn't expect was that he also focused on Spider-Man, wrote the sequel to 'Huji Takes You to Reveal Spider-Man's Dirty Secrets', and brought it to my office, hoping I could publish it on the front page of the Daily Bugle."

"His first issue focused on Spider-Man destroying the original law enforcement order, adding chaos to the police, and making the public panic. I thought this was a quite good entry point. We two polished that article together and published it in the Daily Bugle."

George nodded, expressed his approval, and then said: "Spider-Man does quite a lot of this kind of thing. Sometimes our police officers are acting according to regulations, and he insists on falling from the air to show off as a hero himself."

"During the period when Spider-Man first appeared, one of my police officers caught a thief. At that time, he was waiting for his colleague to come and take the thief and the victimized shop owner back to the police station to make a record."

"The thief was not very honest and struggled to run out of the door. Our police officer had already rushed up to subdue him, but Spider-Man landed in a dive and knocked the thief to the ground with one punch."

"The thief's nasal bone was broken and he was hospitalized. After being discharged, he even counter-sued the police for violent law enforcement. He could only complain about the police, of course, because Spider-Man was masked and no one knew who he was."

"I was just about to say this point." Jameson emphasized his tone and said: "I don't care what kind of strange clothes he wears, but if he covers his face, it means he doesn't want to be responsible for his actions."

George patted Jameson on the shoulder as if thinking of something and said: "Spider-Man's real harm to society is that he shows up with great fanfare while masked. It seems like he is doing good deeds, but in fact, he is telling the public that as long as I cover my face, I can do whatever I want."

"Spider-Man might have done some good deeds, but what if someone learns from him to do bad things? If everyone feels that as long as I cover my face, I don't have to be responsible for any of my actions, then how many people will be victimized like your girlfriend?"

"I have always believed that the deterrent power of the police lies in telling those who want to challenge the bottom line of social order that we have powerful means to stop them. Even if we can't be comprehensive about every case, when the deterrent power exists, some people will not destroy order because of fear."

"But if a person stands outside the bottom line and tells everyone that the police have no ability to interfere with any of his actions, the deterrent power of the police will weaken."

"Potential criminals who are still hesitant will feel that as long as I learn from Spider-Man and cover my face, the police can't do anything about me. The consequences of social order imbalance are far from what he can make up for by doing a few good deeds—I have this view on all superheroes."

Jameson sighed deeply first, then took out a notebook and pen from his trench coat pocket and said: "Sheriff George, can I write that paragraph you just said into our mysterious figure interview section next week? Don't worry, your name won't appear."

"If you are willing." George patted Jameson's arm again and said: "Let's talk about the victim again. Since you were like-minded at first, why did you part ways later?"

Jameson looked down at the newspaper in George's hand. George understood his intention, so he handed that newspaper to him. Jameson looked at certain remarks on it and said.

"For the first three issues of the revelations, Huji was exploring the harm caused by superheroes at the social and philosophical levels. I think this kind of discussion is beneficial and can bring another angle for the public to look at superheroes rationally."

"But in the fourth revelation article, Huji said that Spider-Man visited pornographic places, and even casinos and black boxing matches near Hell's Kitchen many times in the early days of his debut. Therefore, he wrote in the article that Spider-Man is a whoremonger, a gambler, and even manipulated underground boxers to collect money for him, and speculated that he is also highly likely to be involved in drugs and gangs."

Hearing this, George frowned imperceptibly. Jameson looked at his expression and knew that this experienced detective had made the correct judgment. Sure enough, George spoke.

"Based on my experience of dealing with criminals for so many years, Spider-Man should not have any bad habits. He is incredibly healthy. This is not to say that his superpower brings him a strong appearance, but if you have really seen too many gamblers and whoremongers, you will understand that Spider-Man is completely the opposite."

Jameson nodded and said: "I think so too, so I tactfully suggested that this part of the speculation cannot be published for the time being without substantial evidence to support it. Huji was very dissatisfied."

"Two days later, he suddenly found me and said he found evidence. He played a recording for me, from an underground boxing match in Hell's Kitchen. A waiter there said that Spider-Man debuted from there and was originally a black boxer."

"Sheriff George, you should understand better than me what kind of people black boxers are. Huji seemed to have obtained some incredible treasure, insisting on releasing this recording and then publishing his speculations in the newspaper."

George's eyes immediately became serious, while Jameson touched his chin and said: "At this time, I noticed a problem. Where did Huji get these clues?"

"I am ashamed, but I can be considered to have started paying attention to him since Spider-Man first emerged in New York. But Hell's Kitchen is mixed with fish and dragons, and it's not something small characters like us can investigate clearly. The background identity of Spider-Man who walked out of there is a mystery, but Huji was able to dig out extremely critical clues there in two days."

"My intuition told me something was wrong, so I tactfully rejected his publication request. As a result, Huji understood it as the evidence not being enough, so it didn't move me."

"Two days later, he produced evidence that Spider-Man had appeared in the New York sewer, and it was very detailed and professional. He even got the residual samples of spider silk."

"At that time, I was stunned. Needless to say how complex New York's sewer network is. When the underground road network renovation project was carried out, dozens of reporters from the Daily Bugle were scattered, but they didn't splash a drop of water. Could Huji perform the clone technique?"

"Being able to produce this kind of evidence in such a short time shows that he cannot be a simple news editor. Either he has sufficient manpower to conduct a carpet search, or it was premeditated and he had already mastered many clues about Spider-Man, just providing them to me now."

"I felt more and more that something was wrong, so I proposed to terminate the cooperation with him completely. Huji looked very angry. I could only appease his emotions first, and then sent him away."

"I didn't expect that less than a week later, he found a new partner, and not just one partner, but six or seven newspapers and more than a dozen online media outlets. They started to publish those clues Huji found overwhelmingly."

"The death of the first generation of Spider-Man was turned over and written about extensively, some extreme behaviors of the second generation of Spider-Man were magnified by the media again, and the real identity and residence of the existing third generation of Spider-Man began to be dug up."

"Things got bigger and bigger, and the rumors became more and more outrageous. Some news published in regular newspapers were fake news passed through several hands, and some news about Spider-Man reported by the Daily Bugle before were also distorted or taken out of context. I hurriedly asked the editor to publish a clarification statement."

"I published several reports in a row to explain the true meaning of those articles before, and by the way, I released the reliable evidence I had in my hand, such as that he was very young when he debuted and it was unlikely he had an illegitimate child, his body was very healthy, and his work and rest were also very regular, and the possibility of drug use was also very small, etc., but..."

Jameson hesitated for a while. George could see that he had concerns, so he pulled Jameson into an empty room next to the crime scene and closed the door, saying: "If you have anything to say, just say it, Mr. Jameson. If the situation is serious, I can apply for witness protection for you."

Jameson pushed his glasses and shook his head, saying: "It's not that serious, but less than a week after those clarification reports of mine were sent out, I found that my home might have been searched, and I also found someone following me on the way to work..."

George frowned immediately. Jameson seemed to know what he wanted to ask and said: "Reporting to the police is useless. The other party is quite professional and doesn't look like the type of news practitioner who wants to investigate and collect evidence, but more like..."

"Law enforcement personnel?"

Jameson nodded and said: "Of course, this is my personal speculation. It's just that I have been immersed in this industry for so many years and know quite a few people. I immediately realized that I might have been involved in a big trouble, so I immediately stopped and went to the West Coast for a vacation for a period of time, and the Daily Bugle also suspended publication temporarily."

"Then you said Spider-Man might be the prime suspect in the Huji murder case..."

"He might be retaliating." Jameson looked toward the door and lowered his voice even more, saying: "It is precisely because I deal with Spider-Man a lot that I know he is not a fool who only knows how to throw punches. He is incredibly smart."

"The fact that Huji and the people behind him organized a large-scale smear of Spider-Man is something even I can detect. There is no reason he can't detect it. Do you think a young and vigorous teenage hero can tolerate others slandering him like this?"

George frowned deeply.