Fort Hood shooting suspect

As the Fort Hood shootings story unfolded last week, many details that were reported initially proved to be incorrect. At one point, some news outlets reported that three suspected Islamic gunmen were responsible for the massacre. As the story developed, news outlets were quick to identify the shooter as a Muslim. Charlie Gibson, on ABC News, for instance called him A Muslim soldier in his first reference. Alan Mutter, a former editor and now a media consultant and professor, called the coverage “ugly ethnic profiling.” Richard Prince, in a column for the Maynard Institute, said much of the news media was careful in its reporting – but not everyone. Read both Mutter and Prince in the links I’ve included.

Now read this report about the news coverage after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Then give me your carefully considered comments in the comments section below. Was it OK to identify the Fort Hood shooter as a Muslim even before any links to Islamic extremists or terrorism were determined? Would it have been handled the same way if he was Catholic or Baptist? As breaking news develops, what kinds of questions should editors ask before race or ethnicity is included in a story? What does AP say about this? Did the story about the Oklahoma City coverage change your thinking at all?

Your comments are due at the start of class on Thursday, Nov. 12.

If  you’re in the AM class, post your comments here please.

If you’re in the PM class, post your comments here, please.

Being an editor isn’t always easy.  Editors make dozens of decisions daily. Many of the choices they have to make aren’t black and white, but involve shades of grey. Today you are the editor. Would you run this picture? Would you run it on Page 1? Yes, that is a real dead body and real person’s legs sticking out of the ice.

Now that you’ve made a decision, read the story about this picture. Is your decision the same? Does the story change your mind? If the picture was in Detroit, would you run it on the front page of  The Detroit News? Would you run it in the Lincoln Journal Star?

Read the column written for an alternative weekly after the picture ran in The Detroit News.  What do you think of the columnist’s view? Post your well-considered answers to all of those questions in the comments section for your class. This assignment is due by the beginning of class on Thursday, Oct. 29.

If you are in the afternoon class, post your comments here.

If you are in the morning class, answer the questions about the picture here.

We talked a bit this week about using anonymous sources in stories. One question editors should ask when they edit a story with an anonymous source is “what is the source’s motive for giving me this information?” The Washington Post’s media critic, Howard Kurtz, addresses that issue in his column.   Andy Bechtel, an editing professor and former editor, blogs about the use of anonymous sources in a New York Times story about John Edwards and his mistress’s baby.  And finally the editor of the Detroit Free Press defends his decision to use anonymous sources in a story about the University of Michigan football team.

Read all three of these reports and then answer the following questions in the comments section for your class. When – if ever – do you think it’s appropriate to use anonymous sources? Why? What guidelines do you think an editor should have for using anonymous sources? Do you think the anonymous source use in the U-M football story, the John Edwards story, the Afghanistan and Paterson stories (mentioned in the Kurtz column was appropriate? Why or why not? Have you read a story with anonymous sources that made you question its credibility? Tell me about it. This assignment is due at the beginning of class next Thursday, Oct. 8.

Post your comments here if you are in the 3 p.m. c lass.

Post your comments here.

We’ve talked about how even minor errors – misspellings and grammar mistakes   – can damage a news outlet’s credibility. But editors often have to make calls involving fairness too. And clearly, based on the surveys of media credibility, editors don’t always succeed in their attempts to be fair. Read Alicia Shepard, the NPR ombudsman’s column, about identifying the  lab technician in the Yale University slaying before he was charged and while he was “a person of interest.” Then read the New York Times story about the Richard Jewell case.

What do you think? These are not easy calls to make. The Yale case makes that pretty clear. What do you think editors should consider when making “fairness” calls about stories. Beyond making a decision about publishing or not publishing, are there other fairness factors an editor should look for when editing even routine stories? What are they? Have you seen stories published that you think were unfair? Tell me about them and why you thought they were unfair? Answer these questions in the comments  section for your class before the start of class on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Remember self-editing is important before you post.