To Name or not to Name?
It's been an interesting week at the office, with two textbook ethical questions coming up. In my position as assistant city editor, neither of these calls were mine to make. But I did have input on the first question, so I will share it with you all.
On Monday, Newark City Schools were closed because numerous buses had been vandalized over the weekend. By Monday night, after reviewing surveillance tapes from the bus garage, authorities charged two boys, ages 12 and 10, with the crime. The question: To name or not to name?
Traditionally, many media outlets do not name juvenile suspects, but this often varies based on age and severity of the crime. As you can see, The Advocate did not name or clearly picture the boys. The argument that won the day was, in short, 1. They are so young and 2. Their crime was not violent. One other point for consideration: Many other area media outlets, including The Columbus Dispatch and NBC4, named and/or showed video of the boys in court.
What do you all (journalists and non-journalists) think? What would you do? And should what others were doing influence our news judgment?
posted by Ryan @ 10:21 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Count me on the "no way do you name them in that situation" side.
If it's a school shooting, that's one thing.
It's not like these kids needed to be identified to the public because they were threats.
Got me curious now, though.
What was the second incident?
To put it briefly, a teenager submitted a letter to the editor this week complaining about getting bullied at school. The last sentence (very arguably) could have been construed as a threat.
Should you notify the authorities or not in a situation like this?
You guys made the right decision. Don't name.
As has been said already, school shootings and other violent crimes are separate issues.
Non-violent misdemeanors don't warrant the reporting of juveniles' names.
If we print juveniles' names for school bus vandalism, what wouldn't we print names for?
My personal ethic on question 2? Notify school authorities. Did you print the letter?
Actually, this vandalism was serious enough to bring felony charges. Not sure if that changes anything.
I'm not sure if we're going to print the letter; our ME is back today, and he makes the call on what letters to print.
1) I would NOT print the letter, as is, anyway.
2) I WOULD talk with school authorities.
That's what you get from a former sports guy, anyway.
On the first issue, I would probably not print the names... but I'm not sold on that. I agree that non-violent misdemeanors usually do not warrant the printing of juveniles' names. However, this particular crime was not your typical misdemeanor--It had a very big impact on the entire community. I suspect that this occured in a small town, and in that case, the 'domestic chaos' caused by closing schools for a day changes the formula.
On the second issue, I would provide authorities with a copy of the letter. You would not be violating any trust with the person who submitted it. Obviously, if they wrote it as a letter to the editor, they knew it would be public.
So, what was the ME's call?
The letter hasn't run yet, but I'm not sure if is going to or not. I'll look into it tomorrow.
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