10-24-2009 DO YOU REPORT CAUSE OF DEATH? JOURNALISM SOMETIMES INVOLVES MAKING VERY DIFFICULT DECISIONS By John Landsberg If you ask journalists why they got into the profession they will often say they had always enjoyed writing and loved the challenge of examining issues and trying to shine a light on them. Many veteran journos will say journalism is more like a calling rather than a profession. They just love writing stories and seeing their name on them. Unfortunately, sometimes journalism schools don't inform students that being a journalist is not all fun and games. Sometimes heart-wrenching decisions must be made involving friends, family and co-workers. That was made clear yesterday when three Kansas City media outlets wrote moving tributes to a young mother, 45, who had died "at home." Two of them---the Kansas City Star and PitchWeekly---featured major articles on the woman's death, her many accomplishments as a record store owner and her family. (It should be noted no local TV stations reported the story at all.) A third outlet, KCUR.FM, also had a moving tribute to the woman on its site, and an in-depth on-air segment by reporter Frank Morris. The only significant difference was KCUR was the only outlet to answer the question on many readers' minds: "How did she die?" Unfortunately, according to the public radio station, the woman had committed suicide. It is obvious that all three media outlets knew the reason for her untimely death, but only one reported it. Although the Star and Pitch did not report that fact in their stories, the information eventually was revealed in comments on their sites by readers. The Pitch reporting seemed odd since reporter Nadia Pflaum had just written a major story that focused on the suicide of a local bar owner. The story even included a photo of the man's bloody body, which many readers felt was totally unnecessary. Even often-outrageous blogger Tony Botello of Tonyskansascity.com linked to another KCUR story by Laura Spencer that did not mention the cause of death. Which media outlet handled the story correctly? It's not an easy call.
ACCOLADES TO KCUR "I'm thinking that KCUR deserves some accolades on this one for being complete. J-School is often jokingly boiled down to: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. The Pitch and The Star both left out a couple of those elements, mostly the How, rendering their coverage, in my estimation incomplete. "Suicides, like this one often have a back story that needs to be at least touched on (if not covered fully)given time and space provisions - which is why good editing is so important to objective journalism. Kudos to KCUR for telling the whole story on this one. ----Michael Bushnell, Publisher, The Northeast News
SUICIDE QUESTION "John, I am glad you ran this piece on the news coverage of the death of this young woman. Likewise, on your previous article on the "suicide" of the bar owner. I think the public needs to realize the pervasive nature of suicide in our world today. "I have always known that there are large numbers of people who take their own lives and had it confirmed by conversations with a friend in the Mortuary business. One day as we strolled through Mausoleum at his facility in JOCO, he would point to different vaults and ID the suicides and often why they did it. Often it is the looming death by cancer, a tragic loss of a loved one, economic disaster of devastating proportions, criminal convictions with long sentences. "I don't think the general public realizes just how many people take this option. I think they need to know. On the other side of that coin is the bereaved families who are often left devastated by this. Just a couple months ago at a retail counter, I overheard a fellow describe the suicide of his father in law. This was a powerful moment in his life that he will never forget. "In graduate school, I worked as a Psych tech in a local in-patient unit and was saddened by several suicides of former patients who left our facility and killed themselves. They were usually the elderly who were fighting a type of depression that resisted successful treatment. Every effort was expended to save them and it failed. "It is hard to say which is the better path. Ignore the cause of death and print the story of the death or include the cause of death and know that in doing so the family is wincing with the publicity of this tragedy. "I am leaning toward telling the public how they died. At least partly, so we can all realize that someone's life had turned tragic enough for them to wish death instead of life and to hopefully have some empathy for that. In ignoring the cause of suicide, your ignoring the story of their tragedy and I think that is a tragedy in itself. I think it honors their memory by acknowledging the tragedy that had become their life. "We can never address the problems in our society if the public is shielded from them. There used to be suicide hot lines for people to call for last minute help. I am not aware of any such work in the metro area now. Did the mental health professionals among us give up? Or is the story about greed and money lust in the medical and psychological institutions of our community that places such non-revenue generating work in the not important category? "As to the gruesome photo used in the story in the Pitch, I think that was just gratuitous." --Gary Foster, Mission KS
'REPORTING SUICIDES: A TOUGH CALL' "Your story was mistitled.It should not have been "Journalism: Tough Calls."It missed the point.You should have titled it what it was, "Reporting Suicides:A tough call." "As one who had reported on these things for years, I have been through the "we don't report suicides" rule, but clearly when the death is of a public persona, noted business person, or a talk show host (as we sadly saw just a couple weeks ago), the fact that it was a suicide is absolutely pertinent to the story. "With a young person whose death is surprising, it's critical to the story.And I think you're exactly right about the backstory being important. "A man who loses his career, his marriage and contracted a dread disease is an important backstory we recently heard. It provided an understanding of 'why'.Suicide by overt act is common, as is suicide by decision.Many of us decide NOT to be aggressive in our own treatments to prolong death.We need to talk much more about this. "We Americans have such a superstition about death today and the taboos of it.It's partly religious for it's an even stronger taboo in the Bible, no matter what the reason.But the question does overshadow... who's life IS it, anyway? ---RadiomanKC
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