Good discussion, but arrest mug shots do serve public's interest

Bob Gabordi's blog Bob Gabordi is executive editor of the Tallahassee Democrat and Tallahassee.com. He can be reached through this blog, at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or (850) 599-2177

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Good discussion, but arrest mug shots do serve public's interest

Posted 6/29/2009 11:21 AM EDT on tallahassee.com

Web sites for The Palm Beach Post and the Miami Herald published a very well-done story by Jane Musgrave over the weekend looking at the “debate” about newspaper Web sites that publish photos of people arrested on criminal charges, saying such photos are especially popular in Florida.

The story says the practice “has been called everything from ‘journalistic malpractice’ to ‘ethically corrupt.’ ”

I call it news. The fact that such photo galleries are popular with readers and a potential source of additional revenue doesn’t change that. The arrest of people on criminal charges is as newsworthy news as news can get.

The Palm Beach Post is one of the newspapers publishing such mug shots.

Earlier this year, the Tallahassee Democrat’s Web site, Tallahassee.com, began publishing not only the “mug shots” of people arrested on felony charges, but also worked with law-enforcement agencies to create a micro site, Tallahassee.com/crime.

The site contains not only the mug shots of people who have been arrested on felony charges but also a database of our region’s most-wanted suspects in violent crimes, other crime stories and information reported by Crime Stoppers, including what to do if you know the whereabouts of someone being hunted by law enforcement.

Tallahassee.com’s mug-shot galleries only contain photos and information on people booked into Leon County Jail on felony charges.

The argument against such galleries comes primarily from public defenders, who point out that such people are innocent until proven guilty and that newspapers do not – cannot – follow up on each of the charges when cases are disposed of.

Joining them is renowned journalism ethicist Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit national journalism training and education center owned by the same trust that owns the St. Petersburg Times, whose Web site, TampaBay.com, each day prominently features mug shots of people who have been arrested.

“This tactic is not one that’s driven by a meaningful journalistic purpose,” Steele told Musgrave. “It is driven by financial incentives.”

I respect and value Bob Steele’s viewpoint on this and most other things related to my profession. On this one, he and I simply do not agree.

In challenging us on this and other ways in which digital media is interacting with traditional journalistic practices, Steele creates a meaningful dialogue. It serves as a reminder that even in these harsh financial times, a journalist must be about journalism to protect the credibility.

The concept of Tallahassee.com/crime is simple: We view it as a digital police blotter, something that newspapers have always done, and it provides information that readers both need and demand. We think it is an important public service.

Plain and simple: The public has a right to know who is being arrested for crimes in their neighborhoods and community. The fact that the information is adapted to include the best practices of a digital journalistic site doesn’t change it.

That’s the same point made by the Post’s executive editor, Tim Burke.

It is absolutely true that such photo galleries and the most-wanted database drive page views on Tallahassee.com. It has added millions of additional page views to our site each month, with readers spending significant amounts of time clicking through each photograph and reading the accusations.

We make no apologies for publishing things that readers want to read, especially news on significant crimes. I’m a little baffled by that thinking, frankly. In Tallahassee, we have always known that news about crime, sex and football sells. No matter how many of those kinds of stories we publish, readers want more.

But we also regard crime news as essential to a well-rounded news report.

For example, shortly after we began publishing our gallery of people charged with felonies, a parent called us to express her surprise to find her child’s former teacher listed. Newsworthy? To that parent it was.

Then a person of interest in a shooting was arrested the morning that we launched Tallahassee.com/crime and the most-wanted database.

"The arrest came mere hours after the new release of a collaborative effort between the Tallahassee Democrat and the U.S. Marshals in which (suspected) violent wanted felons are profiled in a special section of the online version of the Tallahassee Democrat," said Frank Chiumento, assistant chief of the U.S. Marshals Northern District of Florida, in a press release that morning.

No apologies from here on that, either.

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FAMU's Ammons deserves bonus and should keep it

I’m going to go out on a limb here, a thin, already cracking and brittle limb:

I think Florida A&M University President James Ammons has earned his $113,000 performance bonus, and he should keep it.

A deal is a deal is a deal. Ammons more than kept his end of the bargain.

I’ve read the posted comments and letters to the editor. I know most people who have commented disagree with me on this. But the fact is it doesn’t matter what any one of us thinks. In the end, Ammons will do what he thinks is right.

But I would keep the money.

Consider what he did to earn it before saying he doesn’t deserve it.

He did what no one thought possible in one year at FAMU, righting a badly listing ship. Some were talking again about how the only way to fix FAMU was to shut it down.

He worked night and day, some say to the point of total exhaustion. He brought efficient and professional management techniques to a place that couldn’t figure out the basics such as getting people paid on time in a regular fashion.

Let’s not forget that when he became president in 2007, FAMU’s very accreditation was at risk and was placed on probation just weeks before he arrived.

He went on the road to raise money and recruit the best and brightest students he could get.

He put FAMU back on track, in a positive way.

It is not hyperbole to say Ammons might have saved FAMU. And it could be argued that as a FAMU graduate and former administrator at FAMU with a strong track record of success elsewhere, no one but Ammons could have done it.

No, he did not do it alone. No one does. But he inspired others to reach new levels, and this much is indisputable: FAMU was not going well without him.

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