Poynter Ethics Journal

Covering the offspring of politicians is always difficult, particularly when they struggle with personal addictions. Often, the decisions are framed as private person vs. public figure. The conversation often goes like this: “Give them privacy by not covering their failings or make it public.” This year the Orlando Sentinel has been an ongoing case study in this topic, as the paper has followed the legal proceedings of Noelle Bush, 24-year-old daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Rather than framing the decisions as publish or don’t, the newsroom staff has asked: How can we take into consideration the many values and stakeholders present as we cover this story?

What follows is a sample of the stories, a retelling of the newsroom discussion by Associate Managing Editor Bob Shaw and then a PDF file you can click on to see the story as it was played in the final edition of the Sentinel.

The saga starts in January. The statehouse bureau reporters call to say Noelle Bush has been arrested.

Shaw: “Front page or local front? It was a fairly lengthy discussion. But by the end I don’t remember anybody arguing for it to be front-page news. She’s the daughter of the governor of the state, a man facing re-election. He and his family are automatically news. But she's an adult who was living away from her parents. And her parents had no apparent involvement in what she did.

But it wasn’t an easy call. Shaw pointed out that another Jeb Bush’s child had indiscretions that have been universally ignored by the press, because the incidents seemed minor and the child was a juvenile. Also, the governor had made it known in previous interviews that one of his children was battling addiction.

The story ran B1. (Local & State, 1/30/02)

Bush changed the equation April 30, when he brought up his daughter’s addiction during a campaign speech. He sobbed when he spoke about it.

Shaw: Here we’ve got the governor talking about it a very public way.

That story went A1. (Front Page, 5/1/02)

Then the story went local. Noelle Bush’s case had been diverted to a drug court, where she was to seek in-patient treatment. Sentinel staffers learned the governor’s daughter was at a local facility when she was booked into the local jail after being caught with prescription drugs.

Shaw: She had a bag of prescription drugs. Suddenly, this went beyond (our previous reasoning.) We gave her one bite at the apple. (The story) was big because we hadn’t even known she was in town. The reaction was: She’s here? What really drove that decision was the fact that this was her second offense, and that it had been committed while she was in a rehab setting.

The Sentinel ran the arrest story A1 (Front page, 7/18/02), and a sidebar on the large treatment center with the jump.

Two days later, when she was returned to the center, the story and photo were again front-page news. (Front Page, 7/20/02)

Shaw: We all assumed this was the end of it.

Sept. 10, Noelle was back in jail, this time when staff at the facility found crack cocaine in her shoe. That just happened to be the day of the primary, when election problems plagued the state.

Shaw: That story wound up on the local front. Page One was full to overflowing with other stories.

Even then, it was bottom of the page. (Local & State, 9/11/02)

Throughout September, lawyers for the governor’s daughter argued the court hearings should be closed. The Sentinel objected and set their lawyers on the case to keep the proceedings open. The newspaper’s role as a watchdog took on more weight.

Shaw: This was an openness issue. That’s why we were there every time she came before the judge, even if we didn’t write about it, to make certain nothing untoward happened.

The judge kept the hearings open. At the same time, staff from the treatment center were fighting subpoenas from prosecutors. After hearing their arguments, the judge shut down the investigation into Noelle, an investigation that could have resulted in more charges.

That story ran A1 (Front Page, 10/1/02), because the judge’s actions were so unusual, Shaw said.

Less than three weeks before the general election, Bush was campaigning hard the day his daughter was sentenced to 10 days in jail. The Sentinel staff decided to weave news of the campaign into the story about his daughter going to jail.

Shaw: It was a somewhat bizarre spectacle of the daughter going to jail while the father is on the campaign trail. The governor started his day 60 miles southwest of Orlando and ends it 60 miles in the other direction and never sees his daughter. Earlier that week on "The Today Show," he’d talked at length about Noelle. Jeb seemed to be using the situation when it could work well for him and his campaign, but on the day his daughter was going to jail, he was not here. (The Sentinel reported the governor was worried his appearance in court would unduly influence the judge and create a spectacle. He sent his sister and a family friend to be with Noelle.)

That story went A1, middle of the page (Front Page, 10/18/02). The headline and photo focused on Noelle. The drop-hed and the lede were about the governor.

Lessons learned 

1. Never assume this will be the last time you visit the story. The newsroom in Orlando was consistent in its effort to revisit the ethical decision-making process every time a new story came up, starting from the same moral reasoning where they had left off, but factoring in new developments. When a new chapter to a story comes along in your newsroom, how difficult is it to build upon previous moral reasoning without completely relying on the previous decisions to guide the process when the factors have changed? Some critics say news organizations forget about the past. Others say they are locked in the past. Where’s the middle ground when it comes to ethical decision-making on these types of stories?
2. Identify the journalistic values guiding the process. The Sentinel staff recognized a variety of competing values, including reporting the truth, covering the system, minimizing the harm to an individual and exploring the relationship between a powerful public figure and a private relative in distress. What other values are at stake in this story and how would the coverage have been different if those values had been considered?
3. It matters how the story and photo are displayed. Never was this story stripped across the top of the page. The photos ran small. How does your organization apply the ethical decision-making process to the design of a page or a package?