Situation Definition:
The Anderson News publisher and editor, Don White, has decided to create a new way to punish the drunk drivers. On Dec. 31, 1997, Don White has published New Year’s greeting and a warning of “But please don’t drink and drive and risk having your picture published.” on the top banner of the front page of the newspaper. White warned readers that The Anderson News is going to publish photos of people whoever convicted of drunken driving in Anderson County. White came up with this idea by shaming those violators because most of the violators don’t like to have their name and photographs on the news. Since there are so many accidents happened because of drunken driving, White thought this way could prevent people from killed by drunk drivers.
White began to publish two persons convicted of drunken driving in February 1998, and continued publishing 12 mugshots in March, 20 mugshots in April and 11 mugshots in May of convicted drunk drivers. Under each photographs, White would publish violators’ name, age, place of residence, date and time arrested, charge, blood alcohol level and date convicted. These mugshots and information all came from DUI county jailer. However, in conclusion, nobody could tell if the percentage of drunk driver decreases because of the policy, and the police informed White that a teenager tried to commit suicide after his conviction because he is afraid that his mugshot would be published.
Analysis:
Newspapers have an obligation to seek the truth and report it as SPJ stated. However, on the other hand, some argued that White has no right to publish drunk drivers’ mugshots just because he has access to public information, and that in what forms should the truth be reported? The first ethical issue raised is whether newspaper should publish the mugshots of convicted drunk drivers. In my opinion, it’s no. The rate of drunk drivers did not fall because of The Anderson News policy as a result. It is not fair for the newspapers to publish the photos to humiliate the drunk drivers in order to achieve the goal of reducing the rate of drunk drivers on highways. This method is actually not effective at all. The only people the newspaper are hurting is the family of the drunk drivers. “One father, who managed a local restaurant frequented by teens, said his children’s friends didn’t say anything after his name appeared in the paper reporting his arrest on a DUI charge. However, after he pleaded guilty and his picture was published, his teenaged sons “got rode over pretty hard” by their friends who recognized their father’s picture.” (Hansen)
The second ethical issue I found out is that whether the newspaper should act as the “government” in their small community? This case study gives me the feeling that The Anderson News is acting like the government of their community and imposing additional punishment on the drunk drivers. “It is journalistic arrogance to abuse public record privilege, just as it is to air 911 calls for no reason or to publish the home addresses of police or judges without cause,” Al Tompkins, a Poynter senior faculty member, said (Maas & Levs). “The SPJ Code of Ethics admonishes journalists to act independently, but the policy and practice of The Anderson News would have been impossible without the cooperation of an elected official. The News was also dependent on the jailer for the accuracy of the photo identifications.”(Hansen) Therefore, the publishing of convicted drunk drivers is totally against the SPJ Code of Ethics. Also, would the newspaper be fair about every drunk drivers when practicing its “power”? Yet, the results turned out that no other newspaper adopted The Anderson News policy.
Conclusion:
Therefore, the policy set by Don White is not practical. The rate of convicted drunk drivers did not decline, which means the policy of posting convicted drunk drivers’ mugshots is disappointed to many people, and is hurting the very unnecessary people like the families and friends.
References
Hansen, E. K. (n.d.). Publishing Drunk Drivers’ Photos. Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from https://www.spj.org/ecs10.asp
Maas, K., & Levs, J. (2012, December 27). Newspaper sparks outrage for publishing names, addresses of gun permit holders. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/25/us/new-york-gun-permit-map/