Are traditional standards of journalism applicable in the Digital Age?
Earlier this year, the Twin Cities media confronted the issue of whether or not to name a suspect before charges had been filed. With reports of the arrest of a 22-year-old man for a fatal shooting in March, local news outlets debated whether to release the suspect’s name before he had been officially charged with a crime.
The responses were varied: almost all local news stations opted to name the suspect the day of the arrest while the Star Tribune refrained from publishing the name until charges were filed later that week. Ironically, while the paper may have passed on the scoop, a user on their web affiliate, buzz.mn, posted the suspect’s name shortly after the arrest.
There is no one-size-fits-all ethical answer for such cases, but many news outlets have had a policy of waiting until charges are confirmed because of the seriousness of associating someone with a crime. The effort to avoid inflicting undue harm to a person’s reputation is laudable, but does it come at the cost of timely news? And more importantly, is withholding a suspect’s name futile in a world of online buzz and citizen journalism?
Read MinnPost’s David Brauer’s initial thoughts here and a follow-up column on the ethics of releasing names here.
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