Treatment of story no easy decision

Dailies differed in front-page play following attacks

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 13, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Matthew Murray, the gunman who went on a shooting rampage Sunday, bought an AK-47 assault rifle in November at Robert's Firearms in Aurora. Police found the weapon in his car's trunk.

Photo by Richard Werner / Special to the Rocky

Gunman Matthew Murray

The image is haunting. The words - terrifying.

It's an issue that has come up again and again in recent years, leaving media outlets to wrangle over how exactly to play the pictures and writings of a killer seemingly hellbent on infamy.

Matthew Murray joins a growing list of those who raged online, seethed inside and eventually went out and murdered people.

There was Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech. Robert Hawkins at a mall in Omaha. And, of course, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine High School.

Murray killed four people at two separate locations before killing himself. One attack was at Youth With A Mission, in Arvada, and the other at New Life Church, in Colorado Springs. He ranted against Christians and used chilling words lifted almost directly from Klebold and Harris - laced with dark threats.

The question of how to play the words and pictures - in what was clearly a front-page story - caused editors at both Denver daily newspapers to grapple with difficult questions.

The Rocky's editor and publisher, John Temple, said he didn't want to give Murray the fame he believed the killer was seeking.

The Denver Post's editor, Greg Moore, said he felt it was news and that the community wanted to associate a face with the killer.

In the end, they made different decisions.

Tightrope act

The Rocky on Wednesday ran a front-page photo of students at Youth With A Mission singing hymns, while the Post ran 11 lines from Murray's writings and a 2002 photo of him playing keyboard - above the fold for impact in newspaper racks.

"Clearly, our job is to share information with the public and tell them what really happened," Temple said. "So my point is, it's all about execution. I have never read a rule book or a guidebook that says, 'Picture of killer must be on front page and run big.' "

Moore defended his decision, one that he said was discussed among Post editors for several hours. He agreed there is really no right answer - just shades of gray.

"I'm aware of the (copycat) aspect and that's always a concern, but I also think, as a number of thoughtful people have pointed out, that trying to hide this under a bushel (basket) doesn't make the most sense," Moore said. "There are things that can be learned from this, even from what might be considered as rantings."

The answers aren't simple, said Bob Steele, who specializes in media ethics at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit foundation in St. Petersburg, Fla., that offers journalism training.

Steele said there is a wide spectrum of people to consider when running front-page news that features references to past killers. It's a bit of a tightrope act, he said.

"The key is to minimize the downside and not ignore the necessary obligation to tell important stories," Steele said. "It may be necessary to report on a manifesto and it may be necessary to use graphic images and it may be necessary to tell about a murderer's background to give society an understanding of why this happened."

An underlying issue is competition.

In an era when information can be found as quickly as a Google search - videos of the Columbine attack, Murray's MySpace.com page and the violent short story penned by Seung-Hui are easily obtained - the pressure to be a destination for Internet traffic is very real.

Decisions seen as harder

But Bryce Nelson, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, said editors need to resist the temptation to cave to those pressures. In other words, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

"Every news organization has to try to behave in a socially responsible manner despite the competition," Nelson said. "It does get harder, however, to make a socially conscious decision when you can post things immediately."

Temple said he has no problem linking people on the Rocky's Web site to Murray's Web pages - or other killers' writings, for that matter.

But Temple said even in the new era of communication, the real estate of the front page seen in newspaper racks or delivered in driveways remains different. For a long time, he weighed running a small photo of Murray on the front page.

He chose not to.

"A front page has a different function," Temple said. "There's a tonal issue with the front page."

• December 13, 2007

  11:56 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  davehughes writes:

  Well at least you are DISCUSSING the issue of news media editorial policy on how far to go to give killers publicity, which many of them crave, which then feeds the drive for publicy by yet other disturbed people. But there is more to think about.

  The Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph is now getting deservedly bashed for its front page headline news about Jeanne Assam's past. Here is what I sent to the editor this morning.

  Editor

  I watched the televised press conference after the killer was stopped by Jeanne Assam extremely brave actions on that fateful Sunday. Of course it was held because the press clamored to know who the 'guard' was who stopped him. Neither Ms Assam or Pastor Boyd sought the publicity. I suppose, on balance, that was needed 'news' to complete the whole picture affecting a large institution. But there is a profound difference, I contend, between the public's 'right to know' and its 'need to know.'

  I watched and listened to Ms Assam, a slight of build woman, with some police training, filled with such heartfelt religious faith, that she was able to summon the courage and calm to attempt something hardened trained soldiers would have thought twice about the way she felt she had to act, by confronting openly, with just a small pistol, in all her vulnerability, a heavily armed man who already had shot up the place and posed great danger to hundreds more. She calmly uttered at the conference the ultimate truth of the moment. "It was just me, the gunman, and God."

  It instantly occurred to me we had here our own local Joan of Arc. Whose predecessor in 1415 likewise summoned the courage born out of her faith, against all odds, to lead France successfully in battle at a critical minute in it history.

  But I also thought then, that just as the original Joan d'Arc was burned at the stake two years later, that Jeanne - 'Joan of Arc' - Assam would inevitably be burned at the MEDIA STAKE also. I was right. And you, the Gazette, without editorial restraint, helped light the fire with your front page, screaming headline about Jeanne's past. That was NOT news. And irrelevant to the situation. Why did the public need to know that?

  Face it, Gazette. The nature of modern Media, of which you are a part, in its frenzied pursuit of ratings and readership is more after profit than true 'public service' need-to-know journalism. Such widespread practice does a public disservice. Don't forget what the Mall killer in Omaha said "I'll be famous." Don't fuel the fire. You might get more readers. "

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