What We Left Out of Our Report About a Baby Who Died (And Why)
We didn’t put everything we had into a story about an infant who died at a day-care center. We want to tell you what we had and why we kept it to ourselves.
One of the more difficult aspects of a journalist’s life is writing about death. Contrary to the caricatures of reporters and editors chomping cigars and swilling whiskey down chest cavities devoid of hearts, covering tragedy is a difficult task for any person deserving of the privilege of reporting the news. Recently, our Urbandale Patch reported about a 13-month-old girl who stopped breathing at a day-care center and died. That’s a story we were obligated to report. That’s a story we were also obligated to report with particularly keen sensitivity. And, for that reason, we never shared with readers the recording of the 911 call that was made as a woman struggled to revive the child as she talked on the phone with an emergency dispatcher…
In this Article:
Karena Garrity
1:48 pm on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Good for you. Setting an example for other media outlets. Hopefully they will follow up on your good decisions. more ›