Media responsibility and self-censorship, topics that usually only concern wonks like us at Unspun, have hit the mainstream in a big way since someone in the D.C. area started shooting earlier this month. It's one of those occasions where the media get to report on themselves, and we get to report on the reporting. Is it us, or is the room spinning?
The main argument for discretion is that the shooter seems to choose his targets based on what he's not not expected to do. One example of several: When cops told TV audiences that schools were safe, the sniper promptly shot a 13-year-old outside his school. Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara pointed a finger at the Globe's corporate cousin, the New York Times, which published information about traffic surveillance cameras near the shootings. McNamara asked, "That information assists who, exactly, besides the shooter?" In commentary for the Christian Science Monitor, NPR analyst Daniel Schorr said, "I didn't always believe a journalist should ever withhold news. But the violent times we live in make me hesitate about absolutes."
Media-on-the-media outlet Editor & Publisher, not surprisingly, published one of the few columns to take the side of full disclosure. When the killer left a tarot card at the scene of one shooting, the police came down hard on the Washington Post and a CBS TV affiliate for reporting it. But such information "might trigger Aunt Helen's memory about her neighbor Billy Bob, who was a sharpshooter in the military, boasts about being smarter than authority figures, has tarot cards, and, by the way, has hardly been seen in the last two weeks," wrote E&P columnist Alicia Mundy. As for the argument that media attention encourages the killer, "Do you seriously think anyone here wants to read about state budgets with this killer on the loose?" asked the Washington-based Mundy. No, but even national sources are letting the sniper edge out Iraq and the economy, said the San Francisco Chronicle's Joan Ryan.
Especially in the last few days, the print media have had an even bigger than usual ax to grind with cable news. "Speculation. Conjecture. Guesswork," complained Newsday's Noel Holston. "This is what happens when news networks have 15 minutes of new news and 24 hours to fill." Denver Post TV critic Joanne Ostrow said this story lacks dramatic visuals, so "the news channels have resorted to piling on the experts." The Boston Globe's Suzanne Ryan added, "While this pundit marathon has been great for ratings, many critics ask whether the relentless speculation is helping or hurting the police investigation." The Globe article, ironically, quoted pundits of its own.
Montgomery County Police Department Chief Charles Moose has become the perhaps-unwilling star of the media circus, and he appears to hate journalists. Yet, he needs them. On Sunday, Moose faced the TV cameras and said, "We do want to talk to you ...Call us at the number you provided. Thank you." No one knows what that means, but he asked TV news to broadcast the message as often as possible. Monday, after police received a mysterious but apparently important phone call that didn't come through clearly enough, Moose publicly appealed for that person to call back.
So call the media a necessary evil. And, as the Post's Ostrow pointed out, "a convenient scapegoat when everyone is feeling vulnerable." It's also, occasionally, a responsible citizen. E&P reported that the Fredericksburg, Va., paper the Free Lance-Star didn't interview a local woman shot on Oct. 4, because she asked the media to leave her alone. "Every news organization in the world has called me to try to get her phone number," said a Free Lance-Star reporter, who won't give it out. There's a journalist even Chief Moose could love. - Jen Muehlbauer
Silence Isn't Golden (Editor & Publisher)
http://tinyurl.com/24li
In the Crosshairs of Cable News (Newsday)
http://tinyurl.com/24lj
Visuals Lacking In Sniper Case (Denver Post)
http://tinyurl.com/24ll
Sniper Coverage: Is It Too Much? (Boston Globe)
http://tinyurl.com/24lk
Media Feeding The Fear (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://tinyurl.com/24lm
Free Press And Copycat Killers
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1011/p11s02-cods.html
Hunt for a Killer Creates a New Kind of Reality TV
http://nytimes.com/2002/10/21/national/21MEDI.html
Police Chief Dealing With Nonsense From Media (Baltimore Sun)
http://tinyurl.com/24ln
Media Circus Opens In D.C. (Boston Globe)
http://tinyurl.com/24lo
Local Papers Join In Sniper Hunt (Editor & Publisher)
http://tinyurl.com/24lp
The World Talks About America's "Sniper Culture" (Free Lance-Star)
http://tinyurl.com/24lq
