13-year-old Megan Meier from St. Louis committed suicide due
to a series of cyber bullying messages that she received on her MySpace page.
This story ignited an uproar within the city not just because of how tragic it was,
but because the attackers remained nameless in the first published news
article.
Suburban Journal writer Steve Pokin wrote a heart-wrenching story about Megan’s death, detailing
the pain and suffering that she felt as well as the turmoil and grief that her
parents, Ron and Tina Meier experienced.
Readers wrote various anger-infused
messages on The Journal’s website,
going as far as calling Pokin a “coward” and accusing him of not being a “real
journalist” simply because he did not reveal names in the story or on the
website.
In Pokin’s defense, I would say that he was ethically
justified in his decision to maintain the neighbor’s privacy because of one
word: respect. Chapter 6 in Controversies
of Media Ethics talks about how crucial it is for a journalist to respect
others regardless of the medium, the message, or the messengers. “The “harm”
that those in mass communications are most likely to cause generally is not
physical. Rather it involves a disruption of the psychological space that people
need to live their lives,” (Pg. 220). As shameful and hateful as those neighbor’s
messages were, they still had a right to their privacy and were entitled to the respect from any journalist who covered the story.
If Pokin ignored the “minimize harm” rule and chose to
identify the attackers, then he would be putting the three women in serious
danger. Chapter 6 also points out the value in a journalist deciding whether or not making someone look bad is
actually a necessity for the content of a story (Pg. 221). Did the readers
of The Journal really need to know
who the culprits were in order to fully comprehend and absorb the emotion
from the story? The answer is no.
While The Journal chose
not to indicate who the neighbors were, the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch did not hesitate in disclosing the identity of the
neighbors. The Post’s decision can be
ethically justified through the principle of honesty. “Indeed, truth
telling is basic to all forms of human communication; without it, others cannot
trust the information they receive and therefore cannot confidently base their
own ideas or actions on that information” (Pg. 218).
A journalist’s first rule
in their code of ethics is to “seek the truth and report it,” not just half or
most of it…but all of it. Although
the neighbors were not charged with anything in relation to the suicide case,
the truth still remains that they did in fact send extremely hurtful messages
to Megan Meier through cyberspace.
The writers at the Post believed that piece of information to be not only truthful,
but also significant to their story as well. By the Post including the names, the readers can fully trust the source
and make an informed decision on cyber bullying and the serious impact it can
have on children and adolescents.
Both of the newspapers made tough decisions on whether or not to
include the names of the neighbors and while I do think both consisted of some
sort of ethical value, I do find The Journal’s
ethical justification more compelling. Pokin made the tougher decision out
of the two and had to endure some harsh consequences from the audience. But
guess what? He was able to tell a true story whole heartedly without
sacrificing his subject’s privacy. He presented the public with what they
deserved to know, but still showed respect to the subjects he was writing about.
I personally think the latter is much, much worse.