I saw this article where country singer Ashley Judd talked about being on the “other side” of coverage of tragedies. It made me take pause and reflect.
As a former photojournalist turned newsroom lawyer, I’ve had to wrestle with this from time to time. My watch-words (especially in the Media Law and Ethics classes I teach) has always been “good taste and common sense win the day.”
But it’s always a tough call.
It's an interesting essay on the question about where to draw the line. I'd recommend reading the linked piece about Judd's discussion too. Her mother struggled with depression and took her own life, but the media coverage ran to the lurid. The family had to sue to stop the release of police photos of the death scene, which didn't really have any substantive value to add to the story.
FWIW, I wouldn't have run the pictures of the dead bodies in the examples that Glasser uses for the same reason. But these aren't easy calls either. "Good taste and common sense" may seem ambiguous, but when applied earnestly, probably serve as the best guidelines.
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