Four readers have telephoned me, one has written me a short letter and one has written a two-page letter to Joan Fraser, the editor of The Gazette, to complain about our main headline on the front page on March 14. It was the day we reported the murders of 16 schoolchildren and their teacher in Scotland.
The biggest part of the heading said, “Slaughter in Scotland.” The subsidiary headline — known as the deck — said, “Disgraced Boy Scout leader kills 16 kids, teacher.”
Thomas Hamilton, who shot himself to death after killing the children and their teacher, had indeed been a Scout leader, but roughly 22 years earlier and for only about eight months.
The story in The Gazette made clear in the second paragraph that the Scout movement had expelled the killer in 1974. It said, however, that he still wrote letters about the Scouts, “sallied out with leaflets, and wrote to the queen, the movement’s patron.”
One of the senior editors told me last week that the story was about 24 hours old by the time readers began to see The Gazette on March 14. We first heard about it in the morning of March 13, much too late to put it into that day’s paper.
“We were attempting to fashion a story that would explain why this tragedy occurred,” the editor told me.
“The best information we had available Wednesday night (March 13) was that the deep-seated grievances that led to the slaughter took root when Hamilton was expelled from the Boy Scouts.” To this day, the editor stands by the headline.
In his letter to Miss Fraser, Robert E. Saggers, a past president of the Quebec Provincial Council of Scouts Canada, said, in part:
“Now, more than ever, I am convinced that young people need the type of values and sense of direction that Scouting provides. Sensationalist headlines without substance in The Gazette do not help.
“I hope that my writing helps you become more conscious of the consequences of headlines that might mislead the public. And that you will ensure that future headlines and lead paragraphs in The Gazette more accurately fit the circumstances.”
(Speaking to me last week, Mr. Saggers made the point that the phrase “Boy Scouts,” at least for Canadians, was obsolete. The organization accepts girl members — different from the Girl Guides — and is known as Scouts Canada.)
In her reply to Mr. Saggers, Miss Fraser wrote, in part, “You make a serious and valid point. We apologize.”
The editor who told me about putting the story together is one of the best with whom I ever have worked. We all can make a mistake, however, and this story — at least the front-page headline — was a mistake.
The heading on the continuation on Page A15 was much better and equally arresting. It said, “‘Slaughter like medieval vision of hell’: paramedic.”
The deck on the front-page headline called the killer a “disgraced Boy Scout leader.” I am sure that most readers who saw that heading, before they read the story, thought incorrectly that the killer was or recently had been a Scout leader.
It might have been true that he continued to complain to and about the Scouts, but the headline should not have been about a connection that the Scouts had ended 22 years ago.
* * *
Puzzling complaint: Our coverage of the shootings brought a puzzling complaint from a reader unconnected with the Scouts. On Page A15, with the continuation of the story, we had published a class photograph of the children who had been attacked and of their teacher, Gwenne Mayor.
In the circumstances, the picture was heart-breaking, but it also was excellent. I think that practically every periodical in the world published it, some newspapers on their front pages in color.
The reader of The Gazette said we should not have published the photo. When I asked why, all he could say was that he had “a personal objection.” And that was all he could or would tell me.
