Identifying kidnapped girls vexes news media

By The Associated Press

08.07.02

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NEW YORK — First, their pictures blanketed TV screens. Then they virtually disappeared. The abduction and rape of two California girls proved a test of news media policies on identifying sexual assault victims.

Hours after the girls were abducted at gunpoint Aug. 1, it became the top story on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, which repeatedly flashed their names and pictures.

It was news, but it also complemented a law enforcement strategy of giving as much attention as possible to the case in the hope of finding the girls alive.

The girls' ordeal ended when sheriff's deputies shot and killed their kidnapper, Roy Dean Ratliff.

For news outlets, the case suddenly turned when Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks revealed on CNN's "Larry King Live" that the girls had been raped. Most news organizations make it a policy not to reveal the names of sexual-assault victims, with some exceptions, such as when the victim wants to be identified.

The names and pictures soon disappeared from the cable news outlets. CNN and Fox News Channel both showed tape of the girls shortly after they were released, but blurred the pictures so their faces couldn't be seen.

The quick flip seemed illogical to Kelly McBride, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute, a journalism research center. The girls' names and faces had already been seen extensively, McBride noted.

"Technology has taken us to the point where our goal of minimizing the harm is beyond our control in cases like this," she said. "And it's going to happen again and again."

While Fox News Channel "Newswatch" host Eric Burns recognizes that the switch could be criticized, he said Fox is "making a gesture in the proper direction. It's the proper thing to do."

Reached at home after the late announcement, Marcy McGinnis, CBS senior vice president of news coverage, made the decision to continue using the girls' names and pictures. They had already been shown on the "CBS Evening News," and were on "The Early Show" on Aug. 2.

CBS generally tries to maintain the privacy of rape victims, but in this case, privacy was no longer an issue, she said.

Yet later, CBS news managers held a lively debate about the policy, with some saying the names should continue to be broadcast because everyone knew them already.

So, someone asked at the meeting, what are their names? No one could answer. The silence torpedoed the argument, and McGinnis switched gears, deciding the names should no longer be used.

ABC's "Good Morning America" did not identify the girls or show their pictures. NBC's "Today" show used their names once.

"We did our best to use discretion and cover it appropriately," NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said. "The story takes a turn like this and you wish you could rewind the tape."

The Associated Press continued to identify the girls after the rapes were revealed, but limited their use in a version of the story that moved the morning of Aug. 2. The names were later removed from the story that was filed for the next morning's newspapers.

"The names have really receded as the heart of the story and it's now appropriate to return to a policy that has merit," said Kathleen Carroll, the AP's executive editor.

Hours later, however, the AP resumed reporting one girl's name after she came forward in a television interview and described their ordeal. Seventeen-year-old Jacqueline Marris said she was granting the interview to help get over her ordeal.

On Aug. 5, the AP resumed using the names of both girls after Marris and 16-year-old Tamara Brooks appeared together in a recorded interview that was broadcast on NBC's "Today."

Newspapers took different approaches in their Aug. 2 editions. The New York Times did not identify the girls after the rapes were revealed, while the New York Post used their pictures. The Los Angeles Times did not identify them, but the girls' hometown newspaper, the Antelope Valley Press, did.

"I don't know how you squeeze the toothpaste back into the tube," said Dennis Anderson, editor of the Antelope Valley Press. His newspaper generally doesn't identify rape victims but, like McBride, Anderson wondered whether this policy perpetuates the idea that rape is something to be ashamed of.

Although the cable news network MSNBC stopped identifying the girls, the Web site MSNBC.com used their names, saying editors "decided to make an exception in this case since the girls were publicly identified before it became known that they had been assaulted."

Web sites for CNN and The New York Times withheld the names.