Ethical position of the reporters in crime depiction

Big Picture Case

“ There’s been a botched bank robbery downtown. Two clerks are dead. A gunman has fled on foot. A reporter for the all-news radio station in town rushes to the scene, and police give her this description of the suspect: a black male, 18-to-24 years old, about 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, wearing dark jeans and a grey hoodie. Should the radio station broadcast the description?”

For this prompt, I chose the role of a police officer in the town of the bank robbery. However I personally would argue more under the ethical position of the reporter in this situation. That is because I believe the reporter has a large impact in the way they decide to broadcast the description, if they so decide. As a bank robbery goes, especially if it was in a smaller town, it would be out of the question to not broadcast the description. If you’re broadcasting on the radio and informing the public of a fled gunman, there has to be a description given. Such as how at Emerson College we get emergency alerts if a stabbing or other crime is committed and the assailant could still be within the area. Informing the public over the radio allows for anyone downtown to be aware of the situation and take caution, because the gunman is indeed armed and has killed two clerks already. Because of this situation, I feel it is in the reporter’s best interest to inform the public by broadcasting the description, just in a way that does not cause unintentional bias to come forth.

For every journalist, it is integral to look to the AP Stylebook for help in certain situations like this. This is where a reporter should turn for an ethical dilemma of this type, in which race and racial bias can come into play. The AP Stylebook has a section on covering race and one quote from it is as follows “ For suspects sought by the police or missing person cases using police or other credible, detailed descriptions. Such descriptions apply for all races. The racial reference should be removed when the individual is apprehended or found”. For this case, at least under the guidelines from the AP Stylebook, it can be concluded that it is integral to describe the race. This race description should also be applied across the board in future cases as well. So for example, the reporter should describe the race of future suspects and sought after criminals as white, if they are indeed reported as white. In most cases in which police are looking out for suspects and especially here where the suspect is armed, race is an integral descriptor and should be broadcast. The AP Stylebook also discusses how after the suspect has been apprehended it is recommended to remove the race descriptor. This could be done by reporting the suspect was caught without making any racial references if you were broadcasting or in terms of an online news source one could go back in and remove the racial descriptor as the information is now no longer needed.

Obviously it is key here to also discuss the factors in mentioning race, especially when it comes to black suspects. This is because racial bias comes into play here. Multiple articles from Poynter, cited below, discuss how the AP Stylebook updated their racial IDs section and also how racial IDs have been used in an Arkansas paper’s Police Beat column. These show both sides of the issue quite clearly. Poynter discusses how the AP Stylebook’s update on racial IDs and provides quotes such as “ They generalize. They stereotype”. Which is indeed true, as it also discusses if a journalist would report that a suspect is “ Jewish-looking” or “ appeared to be Italian”. Race and ethnicity are easy to generalize, however many times these generalizes aren’t true. That is why this can be considered an ethical dilemma or situation, because the ethical ramifications of assuming ethnicity do have a price. However the AP Stylebook still stands behind its guidelines to covering race and after updating, still feels that while their guidelines cannot cover all situations, they’re “ trying to be fair and reasonable in [their] guidance”.

Overall, I find as a reporter in dire situations like this, in which an armed assailant is still present within downtown, it is a key to provide a description of race. This will aid both citizens in the area and the police in the hunt for the suspect, especially since the suspect has killed two clerks. Ethically in this situation providing race as a description is important and therefore outweighs the possibility that racial bias may be present. While the suspect description can be considered one of an average black man, unfortunately if this is the description provided by police of an armed assailant it is within the best interest of the public to continue broadcasting it under the guise of safety and information.