Paul Berry, the Executive Director, News and Engagement at the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader (and, full disclosure, a guy I’m Facebook friends with) wrote an editorial in his paper’s Sunday edition about why they’re dumping mugshot galleries:
I’d been thinking lately about the mug shots and our role as the community newspaper. As I’ve said countless times since getting here, our success hinges on our ability to produce quality journalism that impacts our community.
Good journalism seeks to bring clarity to confusion, helps us ask informed questions and provides us with the information we need to make informed decisions for our families, businesses and communities.
We’ve been struggling with how these galleries fit into our approach. While they serve as a record of arrests in our area, they raise significant questions. Was the arrest justified? Were formal charges filed? What is the condition of the person arrested?
Without proper context, the galleries serve as little more than a place for people to gawk at those who have been arrested. Many of those who are arrested need our community’s help, not our ridicule.
[…]
We’ll continue to report on the serious crimes against people in our community, as you’ve come to expect from us. And we won’t shy away from holding people accountable for their actions, including publishing their photos.
But for now, mug shots are a machine we won’t be turning back on again.
I’ve made this point before, and while I know the clickbait value of these slideshows (LOL PERSON AT THEIR WORST MOMENT LOL), it seems like newspapers, as Paul wrote, as agents charged with bringing “clarity to confusion” should probably avoid being in the business of shaming people who are still innocent until proven guilty.
Do these photos help you live a better life? No. Help you be a better member of your community? Not really. Inform you in any manner whatsoever unless you just happen to recognize someone in the photostream (and even then, you’re only ahead in knowing that they were arrested, not if the case was resolved somehow)? Nope.
In fact, many of the Star’s mugshots are from Maricopa County, which sort of invalidates the idea that posting these photos is some sort of community service. Even the wire-service-supplied weekly slideshow of NFL cheerleaders, which has zero news value and should be somewhat embarrassing for a theoretically serious newspaper to host, at least doesn’t infringe on our basic values of justice.
Now that the paywall is up (more or less) for the Star, shouldn’t they be able to dump the most absurd traffic-baiting features? First up, learning from the example of the Springfield News-Leader, should be the mugshots.
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2014.
Aside from the fact that it can be wildly entertaining, the “Police Blotter” in the Weekly doesn’t really serve much of a purpose, either. At least you don’t include names.
And also the huge graphics (or pictures) that fill up the computer screen when you are trying to read stories on line. They don’t add to the positive information experience. Ditch ’em, ADS.
Gonzo: I get what you’re saying about Police Dispatch, for sure, and I’ve thought about what benefit “wacky crime” provides other than humor (the answer: not much), but I think the standard should fall somewhere along the idea of whether you’re shaming someone for clicks or not.
Totally agree – shaming people for clicks with mugshots is about as low as a newspaper can go without outright lying.
The Red Star lost all credibility long ago. Now it seems that they report the news 24-72 hours after the event happened, or chose to cover “fluff” pieces rather than actual local news items. They chose to demand one have a Facebook account to comment on local stories (kickback from Facebook?), and that drastically cut down on comments from local citizens, now they seem to have so chosen to give one ten free pages to read before demanding one purchase a subscription, however those ten pages are not known until you get the last notification. The Red Star has gone downhill for years, I think it’s on it deathbed. Pathetic excuse for a “news paper” at best.
Example of the Star’s failure. I’m outside Sunday night trying to figure out if Columbus Day is a holiday in Tucson and whether trash will be collected. Grabbed the Sunday newspaper – nothing, nada about the holiday. Not long ago, they used to have a little box stating what was open, etc.
So I had to go inside, start up the computer and find it online deep in the City of Tucson’s website.
#epicfailStar
If Google worked more like a Newspaper that got thrown out after a while, rather than a landfill of slander, posting a booking photo in a News article wouldn’t be so devastating.
Of course, their actions are reinforced by the 230C infringement . Maybe HB 2191 will finally get rid of these damn things once and for all. https://www.ussupportllc.win/podcast/hb-21…
The end of the AZ Star may be coming.
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/022619_star_buyouts/all-star-lineup-tucson-reporters-faces-buyouts-layoffs-loom/