You probably have heard about the incident where six
black students, known as the "Jena Six," were charged with beating a
white student at Jena High School.
The Town Talk local newspaper in Alexandria, La., has been covering this story
for over a year and has published more than 110 stories in
12 months. In
Al's Morning Meeting, Al Tompkins interviewed Paul V. Carty, executive editor/local information center director of
The Town
Talk.
Carty explains in the interview how his newspaper is covering the
"Jena Six" case. Consider the points Carty makes and keep them in mind next time you're faced with a sensitive story.
Here are a few things Carty said
The Town Talk does:
- We seek and report the truth in a truthful way
- We serve the public interest
- We exercise fair play
- We maintain independence
- We act with integrity.
Carty tells of problems he has seen with the coverage of the "Jena Six" issue. Make sure
not to do this in your reporting:
- Accuracy without truth: Facts get reported with no context.
- Assumptions and skewed reporting: Lots of people working for major media -- and others working with small advocacy journals and point-of-view e-zines -- already "knew" the story by the time they started asking questions about it.
