By CHARLYNE BERENS
Alumni News editor
The media have been indicted — and by two of their own.
This indictment will not haul any reporters or editors or news directors before the bar of the U.S. justice system, but its instigators hope it will lead to some changes in the way print and broadcast journalists report on that system.
Indictment: The News Media and the Criminal Justice System is the latest in an annual series of special reports on media coverage of specific topics like religion, the military, science. Published by The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, the current report was written by Wallace Westfeldt and Tom Wicker.
Westfeldt began his career in print journalism before spending 21 years as a television writer, reporter, producer and executive producer. Wicker spent 31 years with The New York Times, first as a reporter, then as Washington bureau chief and finally as a columnist.
The two journalists approached their study of media and the criminal justice system with “no preconceived notions,” according to Ken Paulsen, director of The First Amendment Center. After interviewing dozens of judges and attorneys and examining media coverage of the system, the authors concluded the media’s coverage of crime, its investigation and resolution results in a badly served audience and a poorly served citizenry.
“This comes down hard on the news media,” Paulsen said.
John Siegenthaler, a member of The First Amendment Center board of trustees, wrote the book’s foreword. He writes: “The national news media — too often motivated primarily by profit and either bored by process or convinced that viewers and readers are — focuses on sensational crime cases in which the famous or infamous are accused of or victimized by some violent or bizarre misdeed.”
By ignoring day-to-day coverage of the courts, Siegenthaler writes, the media have failed to help the public understand how the criminal justice system works.
“Within the past decade this society, thanks in large part to heavy media hype, has produced more sensational criminal trials than in a full century before. And the evidence is clear that the system of justice, the practice of journalism and the public all are the poorer for it.”
Charles Overby, chairman and CEO of The Freedom Forum and of The First Amendment Center, said the study is part of The Freedom Forum’s ongoing mission to help the public and the media understand one another better. “We have done in-depth studies of business, religion, politics, medicine and the media. Each study has helped people understand the media better and has offered insights into how to improve news coverage,” Overby said.
He said the media’s coverage of America’s court system was weak and far out of balance with coverage of crime. “This study focuses on the need to make institutional changes in the way courts are covered.”
Paulsen said the First Amendment Center hoped the report would help the media make those changes. “We hope American’s newspaper editors and news directors will look at their own operations and see if they’re living up to their standards.”
The publication was sent to newspaper editors and news directors and was made available at the American Bar Association’s convention. It is also available free to anyone who may be interested in the report.
In addition, Paulsen said, the report may be downloaded from The First Amendment’s Web site: www.freedomforum.org.