|
DOUGHERTY: That old news game |
|
|
Friday, 14 September 2007 |
 A woman wrote a letter to the editor that we ran this week that praised the Benton police, Arkansas State Police and the Benton Fire Department for their role in preventing the family of Army Spc. Donovan Witham from being subjected to seeing protesters from an off-the-map “religion” in Kansas at the young man’s funeral Sept. 1.
Sheila Zumo of Benton wrote that she considered it sad that the newspaper showed protest signs that the members of the family from Topeka were holding. She contended that we were “helping them” get their message out. She concluded by maintaining that the picture would have been much better if we had shown only the firetruck and the police car.
While Zumo appears to be sincere in her beliefs, a few holes in her theory of a newspaper’s duty need to be identified.
•We publish a newspaper in which we do our best to let you know what happens in our county every day.
•In doing so, we occasionally do a bit of cheerleading for community events and children’s efforts. That also is part of the job of a community newspaper.
•However, it means we publish what happens in our community, regardless of how grim it might be. Bad things happen and we are compelled to let our readers now about them when they do.
•The story of the police department, state trooper, fire department and Patriot Guard Riders working together to keep the family of a young man who died fighting for his country from seeing the protesters was a feel-good aspect of a grim story: A group of wing-nut zealots who are filled with hate for homosexuals chooses to use the funerals of such brave young men and women to attract attention to their beliefs. (This particular group calls itself Baptist because the founders once belonged to a Baptist church. Their current tenets bear no resemblance to any Baptist church that I know.)
•We cover the news. We don’t choose it. When an infamous group of protesters from Kansas chooses to try to disrupt a funeral of a brave, young man from our area, it is news — it doesn’t matter if we show it or not.
•Showing a picture of a firetruck blocking an entrance and a police car and nearby officers controlling traffic without showing the reason would look silly or worse — it would look like we were trying to censor the news.
•The right to protest is one of the great things about our country. If Zumo were protesting against something she felt fervently about, she likely would hope that she received some publicity from the news media. That’s part of the reason you protest for or against a cause. I can’t say that we run a photograph of every protester who ever walked a circle in Saline County. But I can say that we don’t choose which ones we run based on our personnel preferences. I can’t stand the thought of using a soldier’s funeral for such a reprehensible cause. As my wife, Nancy, said: “It sickens me.” But that doesn’t give me the right to dismiss a cause just because I don’t support it. That shouldn’t enter into the decision of whether it is news or not.
•Believe it or not, the least offensive signs of those held by the protesters happened to be the ones in the photo we ran of the firetruck and police car. Others included horribly sickening phrases about children (on signs held by children) and others lashed out at homosexuals and why Americans were dying in Iraq.
•The photograph we ran was a striking image that told the story: Protesters from Kansas marched and waved signs peaceably at a soldier’s funeral in Benton, Ark. Local agencies worked together to keep them from uprooting the funeral and upsetting the family without violating the protesters rights as Americans. Running it without the protesters or their signs, showing only a firetruck and police car as curious passersby drove down the road toward a church would have been editing out the reason for the firetruck and police participation in the first place.
Mike Dougherty is city editor of the Courier. His column appears Sunday and Thursday.
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
Razorbacks
