Everyday Ethics

It's day two of the latest chapter in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. (See my earlier post, mostly tracking last night's online and cable coverage online, here.)

Front pages, Web sites and newscasts across the country are playing the story big today. Appropriately.

This development -- a suspect in the case being brought from Thailand to Colorado -- is huge.

But I stick with my admonition that journalists should proceed with caution on this story. There's too much we don't know. We only see part of an emerging, giant jigsaw puzzle.

I like the headline I just read on an Associated Press story posted on the MSNBC Web site:

Prosecutor urges patience after JonBenet arrest
Suspect claims he 'accidentally' killed 6-year-old who he loved 'very much'

It's very important to include that "claims" verb. Also significant is the admonition: "Prosecutor urges patience…"

In sampling stories from across the country, I see too many assertions about this case based on loose sourcing and assumptions.

Case in point -- the New York Daily News. Its front-page headline screams: SOLVED!

Hmmm. How do they know the case is, in fact, solved at this point?

And, one of the Daily News stories is headlined, "Sicko bagged in Bangkok."

It, like too many other stories across the land, is heavy on anonymous sources.

"This guy is a dirty, kiddie molesting, porn trafficking" expletive, said one law enforcement source.

I guess the New York Daily News has the power of prosecution and the judgment of jury.

And, when the Daily News didn't have its own anonymous sources to use, they relied on the unnamed sources of other news organizations: "The former second grade-teacher allegedly confessed to details of the 6-year-old pageant winner's slaying that were 'not publicly known,' MSNBC reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources."

A story of this magnitude requires journalists and their news organizations to be both appropriately aggressive and extra careful.

There are many examples over the past decade of how journalists have mishandled the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. I sure hope we can do much better on this chapter of the story.