Nobody said that ethical behavior is easy. Reporting the kidnapping and rape of two Los Angeles teenagers is a prime example.
It is standard policy of the Times-Union that victims of sexual assault are not identified in most circumstances unless the victim gives permission or goes public. It’s the same policy followed by The Associated Press and most of the mainstream media.
The kidnapping of the two teenage girls on Aug. 1 became big national news while a search was under way. The Georgia Times-Union, the first edition off the presses, included the girls’ names and photos. But that same evening, the abductor was killed after a car chase and a Los Angeles-area sheriff revealed that the girls had been raped. Was it too late to protect the girls’ identity? Was the genie out of the bottle? After discussing the situation, Times-Union editors decided to delete the names and photos from The Florida Times-Union.
So on Friday, Aug. 2, Georgia readers saw the names and photos of the two abducted girls, but Florida readers did not.
“This was an unusual story because its nature changed between editions,” News Editor Mike Marino said. “That’s why we included the note at the end of the story in Florida editions that explained to readers why, in an earlier edition, the girls’ names appeared and why we subsequently removed them. To be clear to the readers, we included notes in the stories that ran in the days that followed, too.”
Further complicating matters, one of the girls gave a press conference on Aug. 2. But was her name and photograph included in news coverage in Los Angeles? Steve Cotter, senior chief copy editor, checked with The Associated Press in Los Angeles. Her identity was revealed, so the Times-Union used the name the next day, 17-year-old Jacqueline Marris. The second girl’s identity was still being protected.
By last Tuesday’s paper, both girls had gone public in TV interviews, so the second girl’s name was used: 16-year-old Tamara Brooks.
The cycle was complete: Identities publicized when the search was under way, identities protected when sexual assault was revealed, identities revealed when the victims decided to go public.
The Times-Union’s decisions were consistent with a previous case involving a Gilchrist County girl who was abducted. As soon as the sexual assault was alleged, Times-Union editors stopped using the girl’s name and even deleted it from earlier stories on the newspaper’s Web site.
It’s never too late to do the right thing.
Photo not what it seemed
Thirty-four callers, some spurred by a radio station, wondered about a photo of a surfer on Friday’s front page. It appeared his shorts were too low, exposing his private parts. I viewed the image on our computers. It was just an optical illusion, created by a shadow across the surfer’s belly button.
Mysterious photo update
Two weeks ago, we reported that about 10 callers questioned a caption that indicated a German aircraft took a photo of a sinking U.S. tanker off Cape Hatteras in 1942. No way, the callers said. A check with the reader who provided the photo said that it was her understanding it was taken by U.S. aircraft. Joseph McLaughlin of Orange Park found that photo in the book, Battle of the Atlantic , by S.E. Morison, official naval historian of World War II. All photos in the book were taken by the U.S. Navy.
Phone: 359-4217. Mail: P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231. Fax: 359-4478. E-mail: (mclarkjacksonville.com). Mike Clark is available to speak to groups.
