BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Names and faces. The
Globe today withholds
the name and photo of that
nine-year-old kidnap victim from California now that police are
reporting she was sexually assaulted, inserting this into an
Associated Press story: "The Globe's policy is not to identify
victims of sexual assault without their permission."
The print edition of the
Herald runs both her name and photo, although -- as I write
this -- neither has been posted on the paper's website.
As with the Herald,
the
Washington Post's website
runs the AP story with the girl's name. The photo, though, is of a
police cruiser in front of the suspect's house.
The New
York Times ran the AP
story with the girl's name, but with the sexual-assault charge edited
out. The print edition -- but not the Web version -- includes a photo
of her.
The girl's hometown paper, the
San
Jose Mercury News,
withholds both her name and the sexual-assault allegation,
although it does get her last name out there by identifying
her mother. (I am relying
on stories that the Mercury posted on its website yesterday,
and which are still up this morning. Perhaps today's print edition is
different.)
So what's the right answer? This is
a difficult call, given that everyone knew her name as recently as
yesterday. I'm withholding the name here -- even though you can find
it out just by following some of the links I've posted -- because if
I had to choose, it would be on the side of nondisclosure.
The victim and her family are not
public people, and, even though her name and face had briefly been
everywhere, they will quickly be forgotten -- as they should be, and
as I'm sure they want to be.
A terrible thing happened to a
nine-year-old girl. Now that she's home, the best thing to do is to
restore her privacy as quickly as possible.
posted at 8:20 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
