I've started questioning a lot of things recently
Did newspapers get this right, or completely wrong?
Not long after I became editor of the Dothan Eagle in 2017, a local resident was arrested and charged with a sex crime involving a minor.
I assigned the story and we proceeded to gather available information when I received a phone call.
The call was from an acquaintance who happened to be a friend of the person arrested. He politely requested that we not run a story about the arrest. He acknowledged that we had a job to do but said all of the facts had not come in and when it all came out in the end, he would be exonerated.
I didn’t dismiss the request. I told him that I completely understood what he was saying and that what we planned to report was just that he had been arrested, which was true and factual, and that we would report any new information including dismissals or acquittals, etc.
So we ran the story. As expected, it was one of our most clicked stories of the month and created a lot of buzz in the community. Of course TV and other outlets reported the arrest.
The total counts against him grew and we reported that as well. Less than two years later, he was acquitted by a Houston County jury. Of course we reported that too.
His vocational life — and quite likely his whole life — would be changed forever. Reported arrests hang in the minds of the public much longer than reported acquittals. This is true for all crimes but especially sex crimes. Many people who even remember the acquittal still wonder if the person actually committed the crime for which he/she was accused. Their perception of that person is never the same.
I have wondered many times since then how much that front page story contributed to completely changing the life of what appears to be an innocent person. And this isn’t the only time. We have reported numerous arrests that ended in acquittals and so has every other media outlet.
So the question I have been asking myself is should we report these just because we can?
As the printed newspaper began to die and our bosses tried to breathe life into the digital product, we began posting local arrest mugshots on our web site. It was the most popular thing on our web site by far. It collected so many clicks that we reached out to other local law enforcement departments in our coverage area to seek their mug shots for publication.
Many of the people whose mug shots we published were eventually acquitted or had charges dropped. A few of them would call the newspaper to tell us they had been acquitted and ask us to remove the mugshot from our web site. The call often came after an unsuccessful job interview. We would remove the mugshot once we were able to verify the information.
We all know that a person charged with a crime is legally considered innocent in a court of law until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court of public opinion is a different thing altogether.
So I’ve been asking myself if media outlets should refrain from reporting arrests and only report convictions and pleas?
I know this is an intellectual exercise only. This will never actually happen for many reasons. It is worth pondering, however.
On one hand the journalist in me says arrests should most definitely be reported. (1) They actually happen, so the reporting is factual. (2) Police departments publish their own arrests on their web sites so it’s not like no one would know otherwise. (3) Other media, whether traditional or alternative, will certainly report arrests. They will absorb all the traffic your site would get from these stories, making it more likely that your publication won’t be profitable. (4) Newspapers can’t be responsible for the judgment mindset of their readers.
But I keep thinking about how many people are significantly affected in a negative way for the rest of their lives through no fault of their own in large part because of the wide dissemination of an arrest story.
Newspapers exist to inform the public. They also exist to serve the public and I wonder if the public is best served this way.
Nice to meet a news person with a conscience. We should all think about our actions when it comes to issues like this. Sometimes, the “right” thing is the hardest thing to do.