Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

Today, at least for a bit, I’m going to take a short break from the usual harping on stupidity in politics and in the news in general. I ran into a genuinely fascinating Newsweek article posted on MSNBC about how the media covered the Amish massacre a few weeks ago.

Personally, I was thought that many times the news media crossed the line in their coverage. Several days in a row I saw photos on the front page of web sites (or the paper) depicting members of the Amish community, and they were clearly recognizeable … and even I knew that the Amish don’t want to be photographed.

The Newsweek article delves into some of the decision-making that went on concerning how to cover the event and its aftermath, and it shows that deciding where to draw the line is not the easiest decision to make. Obviously, there is a tension between respecting the desires of a very private, secluded community for continued privacy, especially in a emotional situation like the massacre, and bringing the story to a nation hungry for news.

Consider this quote:

Paul Carpenter, a columnist at the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., published a piece about the debate he had with his editor, Ardith Hilliard, over whether to print photographs with recognizable Amish faces. Hilliard argued that it was necessary to publish the upclose images it used because they were part of a breaking news story. �These were very gentle people who � are pacifists by belief and had imposed upon them this unspeakable horror,� Hilliard says. �In the process of storytelling, I would�ve found it extremely difficult to tell that story without in some way depicting the human beings that were affected.� Carpenter thought the paper should not have run the photos. �The mainline news media � has contempt for paparazzi and the tabloid approach to journalism,� he says. �But when you think about it, the paparazzi targets celebrities who have sought the spotlight. So which is more intrusive�that, or what we did to the Amish?�

I still wouldn’t have personally published the photos of the faces of Amish men and women, had I been editor.

Fortunately for the news media (and for those of us whose hunger for news drives them), the Amish seem just as willing to forgive those who transgressed against them and bothered them during the few days the tragedy was in the national spotlight. There are some things, it seems, that we all could learn from the Amish. Perhaps they hope that we might learn something, most importantly the value of forgiveness and not holding grudges, from them as a result of the news coverage. I certainly hope we do.

Read more: Amish Massacre Missteps?