Victims’ Rights and the Media



May 5, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: Joining me now is Bill Cote, professor of journalism at Michigan State University. He is the co-author of Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting about Victims and Trauma. Professor Cote, welcome to On the Media.

PROFESSOR BILL COTE: Thank you very much. Glad to be here.

BOB GARFIELD: Has the coverage of crime, especially the handling of victims, changed over the years?

PROFESSOR BILL COTE: Well it has. For the most part it's shamefully deteriorated I think. Competitive pressures have gotten worse that we're seeing more and more graphic and violent films being shown. We're seeing more graphic descriptions in newspapers and magazines. But we've been seeing some hopeful signs that within the past few years at least that there is some sincere effort to actually improve it.

BOB GARFIELD: Now you've co-authored a handbook on sensitivity. Can you give us the principles?

PROFESSOR BILL COTE:A key principle is that when you go in to cover a story, approach it as if you were in the same shoes as the person you're interviewing. How would you like to be interviewed? How would you like to be approached? And after the story is gathered either for print or broadcast, are there ways that you can present it that - so that you celebrate not only a person's death but also celebrate that person's life.

BOB GARFIELD: You say you've detected a, a, a shift - a pendulum shift back towards sensitivity. Can you pinpoint when that began?

PROFESSOR BILL COTE:If I had to pick on just one I'd say that maybe Oklahoma City really I think brought home to people throughout the nation and maybe the world that there are ways of covering terrorism without terrifying even more people.

BOB GARFIELD: When does sensitivity and deference to victims and to next of kin actually get in the way of good journalism?

PROFESSOR BILL COTE:There are some times if you're trying to be deferential that if you see somebody crying or you see them upset or if they yell at you, that you may not go ahead and get the story, and sometimes that does not work in behalf of the victims and it certainly does not work in behalf of the community.

BOB GARFIELD:In the Oklahoma City case it seems that local and national media have been over backwards trying and not at least to inflame the families of the victims. Now ABC in covering the execution in Terre Haute will actually be anchoring its broadcast at least of Good Morning America from Oklahoma City. What do you make of that decision?

PROFESSOR BILL COTE: Well I know there's considerable controversy about that which surprised me a little bit. I understand that that could be considered grandstanding on the part of ABC, but I think from a victim reporting advocate's viewpoint that it probably is a good thing that we've got at least one important network who is going back to where this all happened in the first place and is trying to remind us of the setting and to remind us of what happened and to remind us of what is going on in the lives of the survivors and the families.

BOB GARFIELD: Bill Cote, thank you very much.

PROFESSOR BILL COTE: You're very welcome.

BOB GARFIELD: William Cote is co-author of Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting of Victims and Trauma.