In the interest of full disclosure, at one time I was a full-time employee of the Burlington Free Press sports department and I currently am a 'temporary part-time' employee there. That said, I have not worked there since last Thursday and have no direct knowledge of the details on the reporting of the following story.
On Tuesday, the Free Press published a short note naming three players who allegedly were suspended from a team for allegedly drinking at a party (I know that's a lot of alledgedlies, but that's the world we live in! Also, perhaps this story first broke on some other media outlet - I only learned about it a couple of hours ago while trolling the Freeps website for sports scores and checking out their Varsity Insider blog).
At any rate, naming high school athletes who break training rules (and/or the law) can be a difficult choice for a media editor, whether in print, over the air or on the web.
(I should know, I was the sports editor of the St. Albans Messenger for a lifetime one decade. But I digress.)
On one hand, these are kids and naming them is embarassing, if not humiliating. Do media outlets name kids who break laws/rules when they are honor students or in a school play? For an underage drinking citation? Unless there were extenuating circumstances, probably not. But that doesn't mean it's right or wrong.
That said, if a journalist is given a tip about a story like this, is there is some obligation on the media outlet to report on it? One could ask if it's the journalist's job and the media outlet's obligation to report any news, regardless of the age of the people involved or whether it is embarassing? One could also ask if the incident is 'public knowledge' within a school community and it is not reported upon, is the media outlet - and/or the reporter - running the risk of losing credibility as a trusted news source?
I'm going to refrain from passing any judgment on this situation and how it was handled. As I said before I have no insight into how the Freeps learned about this particular story or any other details whatsoever and without that information I can't offer an opinion. (Moreover, even if I did have that information, I could be ethically, if not legally, prohibited from discussing those details on my blog due to my work relationship with the Freeps and its reporters.)
Instead, I merely wonder what your thoughts are on the subject.
(Hopefully, I can't get in trouble for that!)
Please vote and if you have a stong opinion, please add your comments to this poll, as well. I'd like to know how people stand on this issue and why they feel the way they do.
This poll is limited to one vote per computer per hour to discourage ballot-stuffing, but this should allow for multiple people to vote from the same computer. The poll closes at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.