Eight Poynter faculty put themselves in the shoes of readers and viewers (as well as journalists) Thursday to help you anticipate and plan your coverage. Their comments address tone, ethics, local angles, follow-ups and more. Gregory Favre, Poynter’s distinguished fellow in journalism values, recalls his coverage of an execution nearly a half century ago.
KAREN DUNLAP Consider what this story means to YOUR readers/viewers/listeners. How does this story fit in the daily human press of private issues/ local concerns/ national and international public affairs? Where does it fit in the gloom index? With the stock market, fuel prices, the Middle East and often the weather contributing to stress, how much is needed about this execution? Even those who cheer the execution will be reminded of a mass tragedy. What is the journalistic responsibility? It is to report on this last chapter in the judicial process. All things considered, the subdued approach might be best. A story on what this means to the various victims (families of the deceased, the injured, co-workers and McVeigh’s family). A story on the execution. A local sidebar if there is someone with a meaningful connection. |
AL TOMPKINS In April, I conducted an RTNDF ethics workshop in Oklahoma City. At the workshop, we developed a checklist for covering the execution. The full list is at : http://www.rtnda.org/ethics/timothy.shtml Have conversations in your newsroom in advance of the execution about your coverage. Include diverse perspectives in your discussion. Spend time discussing content, tone and journalistic purpose, not just the logistics of the prison. Make a list of stakeholders affected by the coverage. The execution is an important story for this community. It may provide closure to some or reopen wounds for others. In your coverage, present the various sides of capital punishment. There are many opinions on this issue, not just “for” or “against.” Reuse file video with caution. Remember that the people in your b-roll of the bombing are seeing their tragic images played over and over in media coverage. Use a measured tone in the presentation of your stories. Use words like “tragic,” “shocking,” “worst nightmare,” with caution. Allow viewers to form their own opinions rather than providing them with adjectives. Do not hype the coverage. Make sure promotion matches the tone of the piece. Use caution in revering the dead. Explain your decision-making process to your audience, when coverage sparks questions or controversy. |
PAM JOHNSON This story will envelop us all. There’s hardly an individual who won’t be engaged somehow with friends, family or coworkers in reliving the tragedy, discussing the execution and generally following the coverage. How the media handle the story will be debated extensively. There are seemingly endless stories to be told over the coming days. Oklahoma City was a national tragedy. McVeigh’s execution is a national experience. So it’s a major story that should be recorded extensively and that can be explored at the local level for the reactions and feelings of citizens. What may matter most, though, is tone. What size headlines will tell this story? How dramatic will those words be? Will the writing be straightforward or be packed with emotional imagery. How many familiar images will be reproduced from the tragedy and how will they be used? Today, thinking about the experience of reading over the coming days, I hope the coverage gives me, a reader, a sense of reflection, an experience that captures the whole of the story beyond the execution — a strong beginning-to-end approach. I want details past and present, but not meaningless or repetitive sidebars. I’d browse timelines and highlights. This is a big story. I don’t need dramatic or overdone presentations to draw me to it. I’ll appreciate clarity, simpleness, reflection vs. boldness and excessive dramatization. |
ALY COLON One possibility for event coverage, or follow-up coverage, would be to profile the last individual who will see McVeigh’s body, or remains, and what their responsibility will be. Does the government handle the burial? Is the body turned over to the family? What takes place just after the execution and up until final physical disposition of the body? And how does that individual handle it? |
GREGORY FAVRE A confession up front: I covered a gas chamber execution when I was 18. The guy was from my hometown. He was 21 and I spent two hours with him right before we walked down death row. And it was like a scene from a movie with the six or seven others on death row singing (so help me) Swing Low Sweet Chariot and When the Saints Coming Marching In. I also saw the crushed crucifix in his hand after he convulsed from the gas. I have some images that I won’t ever forget. But, anyway, this is a big story and needs to be layered in every newspaper as best as possible. There are some obvious ones: Relatives of the victims (one community I'[m aware of, for example, has a sister of one of the victims who is going to the execution. A reporter will travel with her and tell her story.) There is the whole question of the death penalty. In the St. Petersburg Times this morning, there was a story about a man being released after being convicted of two murders. The Northwestern cases are other examples. DNA tests have changed verdicts. Which means that there is a changing of attitudes toward the death penalty in this country. The previously overwhelming support for the death penalty in California, for example, has dropped considerably in recent years. The late Rose Bird might not be slaughtered at the polls as she was if she were running now. (The vote would surely have been closer, even though there were other issues in her case that would have undoubtedly brought about the same result.) So a story, or stories, examining this whole change of attitudes and looking at the reasons need to be on the budget. The Governor of Illinois has called a moratorium on executions. The history of the death penalty in your state. Texas and Florida have become poster children for it. Why? Or why not? How did this all get started in the first place? What have some of the past and present Supreme Court justices written about the death penalty? How about locally generated pro and con columns on the issue? How about opening up your letters pages, or adding a page, to hear from the folks in your community? How do other countries handle these kind of high profile, horrible crimes? What has happened to the anti-government movements since the bombing? There are other communities with McVeigh types, especially in the Northwest. Some reporters have covered executions before. What happens at these things? What are the procedures? Why would anyone want to go watch them? Is it a healing process for the relatives? Will this really close the book for them? How about a graphic with a timeline from the awful April day until execution day and what transpired in the case? And I would send a reporter to Oklahoma City to once again document how all of this has changed the city and its people, if indeed it has. And I would want the reporter to be in a public place the moment the execution takes place. I also would try to probe why someone commits these kinds of ghastly acts, what motivates them, how can they justify it in their own minds–fully realizing you have to be careful that you just don’t get a lot of long distance guessing and jargon in this one. I also would have an editorial ready to run the morning after. In many communities there will also be the anti-death penalty vigils. Who are these folks and why do they believe what they believe? What is the religious community saying about this execution? Also: Revisit the positions of leading politicians — senators, governor on down — about the death penalty. Also, is it possible to do a computer-assisted report on what has happened to the rate of death penalty crimes in those states with lots of executions, as opposed to those with few or none, as a way of testing the deterrent factor cited by proponents. |
JIM NAUGHTON Covering the event itself is fairly direct, but I hope will be tasteful. If I were on a news desk at a paper, I’d invite discussion of whether it belongs above the fold and what kind of art is appropriate. A broadcaster is apt to lead with it or feature it at the top of the newscast, but similar conversation about tone and length is essential. Some sidebar possibilities: Many sizable cities have federal buildings in them. What, if anything, has been done to improve their security against another McVeigh? Similarly, communities with federal courts have an active bar that contains people who would have a perspective, if they’re willing to share it, on what the business with the thousands of pages of evidence says about the FBI and perhaps the Justice Department. Is there a story in which a good medical writer can describe what death by injection is like? There are developments in the news related to Ruby Ridge – the peaceful resolution of the standoff with the kids, the legal determination that the FBI sniper may be prosecuted. Is there something current which should tie into this story? Are law enforcement officials willing to discuss whether lessons were learned from Ruby Ridge so that McVeighs of the world won’t have a legitimate paranoia about the government? |
BOB STEELE News organizations should cover this story with the intensity it deserves, but the coverage should have appropriate tone and proportion. Put the execution story in the context of the overall story that began with the bombing. The execution story is not just about Timothy McVeigh. It is also a story about the issue of capital punishment in the United States and the contention and complexity surrounding it. While we have reported this story many times and in many ways, this case allows for (and maybe demands) and strong look at capital punishment and the many points of view embedded within it. This is also a story about our system of criminal justice in all its strengths and weaknesses. And, to be sure, the execution story is also about the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and the family members of those victims. The reporting on the execution should be done with respect and compassion for those who have suffered greatly. MONICA MOSES If the execution goes off as expected, I hope newspapers don’t do the obligatory paper-of-record, inverted-pyramid, blow-by-blow story. When there is no news and you play it big and write it long, it looks like hype to readers. |
