It’s happened again. Terror has struck at the heart of an American city. This time it was not schoolchildren and their teachers picked off by a lone gunman, but runners and spectators enjoying the Boston Marathon.
A bomb goes off. Another one follows. Smoke, fire, silence, then screaming, weeping. People scurry to find their loved ones. Rescuers rush in to help the wounded, to lift up the dead and the dying.
And then, anger. Speculation begins. Who did this? What kind of twisted hate could be behind such a heinous attack?
In contrast to past tragedies, this time early speculation was tempered by caution — a caution derived from previous experiences of wrongful speculation that sometimes ruined innocent lives when the wrong people were fingered.
It was only a day after the Boston attack that President Obama ventured to deem it an “act of terrorism,” and even then, he qualified that pronouncement by saying any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, one may properly call it terror. Jewish groups and law enforcement were similarly circumspect in the first days after the attack.
This caution is well warranted.
Here’s where media responsibility comes in. Not all speculations are worth reporting. New theories, new hunches, are not necessarily “news,” not until they are backed up by evidence, or reported by authoritative sources. Even then they might well be wrong; but that’s the uneasy balance all media seek between giving out information quickly and making sure to get it right.
As of press time, a suspect had been identified, according to some news sources. That news was quickly recanted, and reporters were urged to verify all such information with great care. By the time you are reading this, arrests might have been made and responsibility laid at the feet of this or that terrorist organization. Or the investigation might still be ongoing.
Meanwhile, what can we in the media do? One thing we must not do is give the perpetrators their moment in the spotlight. Many of them, particularly disturbed young men, have indicated they were “inspired” by the extensive media attention paid to previous gunmen and wanted the same fame, even if it was posthumous.
If their names are not published, they get no fame. If their photos are not published, they cannot inspire another.
This publication, therefore, will do its small part by not running any photos of those behind the Boston Marathon attack. Knowing what they look like will not add to our understanding of what happened and why.
We urge other media outlets to consider doing the same.