In message f30e42de0607180135s3209b202o90f5bbf19e1d8dca@mail.gmail.com, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3
Indeed. In my newspaper of choice there's a section with a humorous or unusual story on the front page every day, called Oddspot. People's names are regularly omitted if the story is embarrassing such as this one about the 911 call, replaced with "a man from Sometown" or somesuch.
Today's Oddspot is two Irishmen who stole a boat in Wales trying to get to Dublin. They sailed in circles for hours before returning to Wales again. They're identified simply as "Two Irishmen" (http://www.theage.com.au/oddspot/).
Actually, they are identified by name in this article from a newspaper covering the area they stole the boat from:
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=1739670 6&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=they-missed-the-ferry----so-stole-a-t rawler-name_page.html
The reason of course is that it's not real news, it's light entertainment. I don't think it's wrong to be making similar distinctions as to what is real encyclopaedic content and what is something else.