Whether To Publish …

Feb 20, 2015 by winjaw

Earlier this week, we published a type of story we rarely do.

In fact, I can think of only two other times in the last couple of years that we have. The subject matter is an extremely emotional one – suicide.

We normally don’t run suicide stories for many reasons. It’s a decision made by one individual to end their life. The friends and family of the individual already know, and they have to deal with their own grief. Our reporting on a suicide only brings more pain – and publicity.

And it really doesn’t serve any newsworthy purpose to report on it unless there is a compelling reason.

Of the previous two suicides we’ve reported on recently, one involved a man who shot himself hours before he was to stand trial on child molestation charges. The second involved a utility worker whose body was found in a field a short distance from his truck.

We reported them because there was some news value. In the first case, we always report on child molestation-related events. On the second, roads were blocked for several hours and, at first, authorities thought it might be a homicide. Our readers wondered what had happened.

The third suicide story we’ve published recently occurred Monday. It involved Coweta County Sheriff’s Deputy Cpl. Donald Patterson.

The deputy was supposed to meet with officers with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that day. Patterson missed the meeting and his body was later found at his residence – dead from an apparent suicide.

We later learned Patterson was placed on administrative leave the Friday before. That was done because there was an accusation of sexual abuse made against him.

There have been many comments on our social media pages and website about why we published the suicide – and more specifically, why we mentioned the accusations against him.

The short answer is, because it is news. The old adage is newspapers never report that all airlines landed safely at the airport. That’s expected and not news. It is news when one crashes or there is an emergency landing – that’s out of the ordinary and thus news.
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No one here can remember the last time a law enforcement officer from Coweta County took his or her own life.

That makes it news.

The fact Patterson was on leave and being investigated over allegations of some type of sexual offense is also news. The fact Patterson apparently took his life before meeting with investigators to discuss the allegations is also news.

And that is why we covered the story. And we will continue to follow the story until the investigation by the GBI – into both the death and allegations – is completed.

Patterson is, unfortunately and tragically, dead. There is still an investigation into the allegations. Both those are facts.

We did not go out of our way to defame him or bring on more pain to his friends as some have alleged. Rather, we reported the facts as given by Sheriff Mike Yeager and the GBI.

To say we ran the story simply to get more web traffic or sell a few extra papers as some claim is beyond insulting and not worthy of response. In fact, we tried as hard as possible to find his friends and then publish their comments about what a wonderful man Patterson was in their eyes.

I can assure you there was a great deal of sadness in the newsroom when we heard what happened. But it is our job to report the news – even when it hurts others and us. That’s why we are journalists and do what we do.

Until next time.