Murdering the Messenger

The column below by news reporter Larry Spears, captures, I think, what many news reporters know and feel. It appeared in the Lake County CA Record-Bee in 2003:

It would have been confusing in the Record Bee newsroom last week if we hadn't been used to what was going on.
A prominent person in Lake County was arrested on serious charges alleging the hit and run death of a 58-year-old father of five.
Our Sept. 20 story reported the death and included comments of the investigating California Highway Patrol officers.
On Sept. 23, we identified the driver and carried comments from her defense attorney. We would have liked to have balanced it with comments from the prosecutor, but one hadn't been appointed yet. The California Highway Patrol ordered its investigators not to divulge any more information. The driver declined to comment.
We wanted to write a story about who the victim was, but no one in his family had a listed phone number. We tried to reach them with messages relayed through the funeral home and a priest.
Responses by some readers were contradictory. Our story about the driver provoked angry calls from two readers who seemed not to have read the same article. One said we were protecting the driver; the other said we were attacking her.
These two people and one later in the week, appeared to believe that we were the ones making the comments, conducting the investigation, creating this tragedy.
What we were doing was reporting facts in our possession about a widely discussed event. That is our job. There is no way we are not going to report a story of this magnitude. We withheld one person's comment that we considered inappropriate.
It would be ideal to have all the information come out in one day. That rarely happens. A story usually unfolds in steps. A prosecutor soon will be appointed. More facts from the¬ investigation will be published. The defense attorney will present his side. We will report it.
We would like to present an article about the human being who died on that road, letting his story be told as he deserves. Perhaps the family will agree to this.
We hear from time to time how all we reporters write slanted, sensational stories to sell papers. That reasoning works at the same level as saying all lawyers are crooks, teachers can't do anything else, priests are molesters and all people of color steal.
It's complicated. Take a single story. One reader may be offended by graphic content. Another is angered because of loyalty to one side, or to a strongly held conviction or prejudice.
Some connect to a tragedy with communal concern and empathy. Others just like to know what is going on. The interest of others may be morbid or voyeuristic there's no way to screen them out.
People see through different prisms. They find their own meanings and make their own judgments.
I've been in this business more than 40 years for papers big and small. It isn't perfect. We here at the Record Bee agonize over sensitive stories.
I certainly reflect personally on these troubling issues. In 1982, my 18-year-old son was shot to death in San Francisco. A TV station showed his body sprawled in a rainy gutter.
I knew editors at all the major Bay Area papers and told them my wife and I would not comment. A reporter and photographer from one paper showed up on our porch anyway. The reporter told me I would feel better if I talked to her. I told her we would feel better if they got back in their car and left. They did. That paper was out of line.
So I've been on both sides of that sad front door. Even for the most conscientious reporters, it is complicated. Some people, as we did, want to be left alone. Others really want to talk. They want to explain their grief, to tell the community about whom they lost and what that person meant them.
It’s touchy. If someone calls and shouts at us, we understand they are angry, and their often are quite understandable.
Get ready for what is coming. Investigators will file a detailed report that tells why they charged the driver. The prosecutor and defense attorney will present their cases, and they play tough. They are not in the business of making the other side look like angels. We will report everything, both sides, as fairly as possible.
For some people close to the victim and to the driver, this will hurt a lot. I’ve been there.
This is how justice is carried out. This is the system. This is the law.
Apparently no one has devised a better way.

Editor’s Note: Reporter Larry Spears joined the Record-Bee in February. His 45-year journalism career includes reporting posts at the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times.

Found on the shore of Lake George last week

Found on the shore of Lake George last week, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Looking for the rock that looks most like North Dakota

Looking for the rock that looks most like North Dakota, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Looking for the rock that looks most like North Dakota

Looking for the rock that looks most like North Dakota, originally uploaded by TedSher.

In Dickinson ND, the Twins are broadcast on KLTC AM. When I was growing up there, neither that team or that station existed. We had KDIX which broadcast "The Game of Day" featuring a different pair of teams each day. With the radio on the back window of the house, we mimicked the play by plays as they occurred. Each of us had special names, Neal was Chico Carrosquel, Ward was Lou Boudreau, Waller was Warren Spahn, and I was Pee Wee Reese. We followed Jackie Robinson most of all, but none of us adopted his name.

"Dear Ted, My brains seem a bit clearer,so thought I'd get this down for the researchers. Anyway, I'm sure you've read about nanotechnology. But, I haven't read anything about devices to record the technology's sounds? It sure would be great to build a nanodevice to record the sounds, then to amplify, then amplify again to hear them to measure and record any differences with such things as ultraviolet light moving things. Anyways, once that done to take any unusual sounds and make music and devices to play the sounds to see and record any different audience reactions. Even if not many unusual sounds would be neat to listen to such unbelievably small devices,just to be able to do so. What do you think, Ted?"

--Dan Buck, Armor SD, April 2, 2011

April 1, 2011

April 1, 2011, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Lake George, St. Cloud