Sunday, April 16, 2006

The coverage of teens' actions


When teenagers do stupid things, they create problems not only for themselves, but for the news media who cover those actions.
When I was a general assignment reporter at The Carthage Press; it was either in 1991 or 1992, I was covering a Carthage High School girls basketball game at Webb City when Coach Ron Wallace pulled his star player out of the game. The girl angrily walked off the court, and headed straight to the locker room, dressed, returned to the court and defiantly threw her uniform at her coach.
When my game account was written, I did not include a word about the girl's actions. I only considered writing about it for a flickering second, then put it out of my mind.
I did consider the negative ramifications of my decision:
-I was not providing a truthful and accurate account of what happened during that ballgame.
-A large crowd had witnessed the event and the people probably wanted to know the truth about what had happened.
-What if the girls' parents were to bring some kind of action against the coach? Wouldn't it be embarrassing for The Press to have to admit that it didn't even bother to write about an event that had turned into a major lawsuit?
-If I didn't write about it, how could people ever trust they were receiving an accurate account of events concerning anything that was written in The Carthage Press?
In retrospect, I probably should have talked to the sports editor Bill Denney or to managing editor Neil Campbell, but I based my decision on the 14 to 15 years of journalism experience I had at that time and on a bad experience I had in 1984 at the Lamar Democrat when I went against by better judgment and wrote about four LHS basketball players who had been kept out of a game for a quarter after being spotted drinking. I was never comfortable with that story, never could justify its running afterward, and I had vowed never to let it happen again.
The afternoon after my account of the Carthage-Webb City game appeared in The Press, sports editor Denney angrily approached me after lunch and said, "I want to talk to you in the conference room NOW!' I didn't argue since I never quite reached 5-9, weigh only about 170 pounds and Bill Denney, a former CHS basketball standout, was well over six foot (probably closer to seven feet) and outweighed me by plenty.
After we entered the conference room, Bill slammed his massive fist against the wooden table and shouted (his entire end of the conversation was a shout), "Why didn't you put anything in your story about --- quitting the team and throwing her jersey at the coach?"
I tried to keep my tone calm. "I'm not going to let that girl's family have to suffer any more embarrassment."
"But it's NEWS," he said.
And he was right, it was news. I tried to explain how I would have taken a different approach if the girl had returned with a gun or if her family had physically assaulted the coach. "I don't want that girls' children to look back some day and see what a stupid thing their mother did."
Bill just glared at me and continued yelling about how I had no right to make that decision. I pointed out to him that reporters and editors make those kinds of decisions all the time.
As the argument escalated, apparently the women at the front desk became concerned that Bill might be killing me, and the second Neil Campbell returned from lunch, he was steered directly to the conference room.
"Boys," Neil said, in his quiet manner, "What's the problem?"
Bill said, "Well, listen to this and you decide what we should have done. This girl quit the Carthage basketball team in the middle of the game, left the court, came back and threw her jersey at the coach. What would you have done?"
Neil looked directly at Bill and said precisely the right thing. "Well, Bill, I would have done exactly what you did. I wouldn't have used it in the story."
Bill stormed out of the room without saying another word. "I assume you were the one who left the incident out of the story," Neil said. I nodded. No further mention was ever made of it, as far as I can recall.
I thought about this incident as I followed the media's coverage of the kidnapping hoax story involving Independence, Kan., teen Kelsey Stelting. It's never easy to know just how far to go with these stories.
Obviously, there is a clear difference between Miss Stelting's actions and the actions of the Carthage High School basketball player. A considerable amount of taxpayer money was wasted as the authorities hunted for the girl and then had to break down her false kidnapping allegation. People raised money to help in the situation and the hoax affected everyone who had invested themselves in this story and in trying to help this young girl.
It was a legitimate story and undeniably should have been a top of page one story in the Globe and the lead story on every newscast, and for the most part, it was.
The TV people did their job, covering the story from every angle. That's what reporters should do. They gather information. But the moment, the authorities expressed doubt about her story, that might have been a time to have trimmed the time spent on recounting every detail of the girl's story. It was fairly obvious from that point on, this was going to be turn out to be a hoax. I also might have eliminated the overgratuitous clips of Independence townspeople who were upset about the incident. They had absolutely every right to be upset, and it made for good television. But as I watched the coverage, it reminded me of the same kind of local journalism feeding frenzy that I wrote about in my novel, Small Town News.
Perhaps, the worst offender was KOAM's decision to have a poll asking viewers what punishment Ms. Stelting should receive. The poll had no news value, whatsoever.
Kelsey Stelting does not deserve a free pass. No matter what problems led her to take these actions, she hurt a lot of people and she cost the taxpayers a lot of money. She deserves the scrutiny of the media and the public, but she did not kill anyone; she just made a stupid teenage mistake. For that to cover the first five minutes of nearly every newscast for two or three days was riveting television, but may not have served the interests of journalism.
As for the Joplin Globe, the revelation that Kelsey Stelting's kidnapping was a hoax, was in the dominant page-one position, the upper right-hand corner. Of course, the article was not written by a Globe reporter, but by The Associated Press.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't diagree with you more about either case.

Anonymous said...

What's your point?

Anonymous said...

Randy, I think things have changed since 1991. ESPN is showing high school basketball games and there's some trickle down effect. So there's more of a spotlight on high school athletes, especially at the larger high schools.

Is it also possible, since the Carthage Press is an afternoon paper, that a quick call the next morning to the coach to see what the fallout the next day at school was? In other words, leave it out of the general game story, but run a separate story on the player quitting, or if she apologized and came back to the team. That's what the fans would wonder, at least I would.

Anonymous said...

Off topic...

Randy, what's with the local politicos appearing on the MCTA's commercials? Are these paid appearances?

Randy said...

It is true that things have changed since that time. As I recall, not one reader ever questioned my decision not to run that item at the time, only the sports editor.

Anonymous said...

Compassion is a rare commodity in the news biz -- unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

I see that after running the Amber Alerts and stories about the girl's safe return, JoplinDaily didn't bother to report that the whole thing was a hoax.

Anonymous said...

NEWS is NEWS. The REPORTER REPORTS the NEWS and the EDITOR decides WHAT RUNS and WHAT DOESN'T. In this situation, the EDITOR was right. As a REPORTER, Randy, your JOB was to REPORT WHAT HAPPENED. The EDITOR gets paid to decide what to do about the events.
The recent case in Kansas, it's the same thing. People want to know what happened. The media reported it. The media's job isn't to show compassion one way or the other - THEY"RE SUBJECTIVE. If We're not to worry what their kids will think should they ever read that story, IT"S NOT OUR PROBLEM! Teens are old enough to take responsibility for their actions.
And, might I add, Kudos to the JoplinDaily.com for staying true to their "All Joplin" motto.
Both papers did their job.

Anonymous said...

Previous poster, do you mean THEY'RE OBJECTIVE?

Also, look into Sanka.

Anonymous said...

The Daily made the right decision by running the Amber Alert. Who cares whether the girl may not have been in Joplin. She may have been here and the alert might have saved her life. The fact that it was a hoax was not a Joplin story and, therefore, not a story for the Daily. Good job dealing with a tough call.

Anonymous said...

Back to the original story of the ball player....why not publish something that is newsworthy as long as it's handled in the proper way and put in the proper context?

Why not hold teenagers, as well as adults, responsible for their actions? The world would probably be a better place if kids were held responsible...just because a reporter has a soft spot for kids is no reason to not report news as it happens.

As to the fact that no one complained about it not being in the paper. Who knew it happened in the first place? Ball fans and family members of the team, all of whom would be protected of the sport and the player....

Randy said...

Again, there is a major difference between a teen committing a crime (and I have always favored releasing information when that occurs) and a teen something stupid such as what happened in the story I related. There are things that do not belong in the paper and despite what some of the comments have said, there is a place for compassion in journalism. It's the lack of compassion that has turned many people away from traditional media sources.

Anonymous said...

I heard that they are announcing formal charges against her today.

Anonymous said...

What makes you think the girl announcing in dramatic fashion that she quit the team considered a mistake? Hey if the Coach does not play her then she probably thought that she had better things to do with her life than to attend practices and basketball games.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the capital crazy poster above. The editor should make the call as to what runs. If there's room for compassion in journalism, the editor should show it, not the writer. Yes, a writer should be objective and report what happens. In the case of the Carthage girl, Randy, I feel you made a mistake. You're saying the gilr shouldn't have to face what she did in public, that she made a mistake. It was news that night, and should have been reported. Your opinion shoudn't matter when it comes to the story, just the facts.

Anonymous said...

The media has an obligation to report on the hoax with as much vigor as it did when they perceived it to be an actual abduction. Public money was spent trying to locate this girl, that's the chief reason why the media needs to remain on top of this story. Anything less is a public disservice.

Randy, you should have led with the girl throwing the uniform at the coach. I guarantee that no matter the result of that game, that's all anyone was talking about afterward. To use the excuse that you didn't want to embarass the kid's family is lame. What about the embarassment to the coach and his family to be publicly disrespected by a player like that, and then have the local newspaper coddle and insulate her mistakes?

Anonymous said...

You say she "defiantly" threw her jersey at the coach. But why did it happen in the first place?

Was it a mere fit of pique or was there something more to it?

I think not ever single action taken by a teenage girl (or boy) should make the news.

When I was a reporter one of our local State Representatives was prone to "sounding off" without thinking. He would call on the phone and refer to certain individuals as "crooks" and "idiots" and worse.

In the newsroom I was in, we knew when to take him seriously and knew when he was just venting. I suppose that was old-school journalism but it probably saved him a lawsuit or two.

My guess is that you were wise to leave that one alone.

Anonymous said...

God who cares...