The News Tower and Barmore killing

August 30th, 2009 at 07:21pm Linda Grist Cunningham

Last Monday, just after two cops shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore, the newsroom was warned: You’d better get over to the daycare center. There’s been a shooting. It’s bad.

We thought: Gunman kills little kids. Later that afternoon as we learned more, as we heard the names of the cops involved, as we pieced together the differences between the eyewitness accounts and the police accounts, we thought: This has the potential to rip this city apart.

Over the next three days, newsroom leaders reached out to sources, community leaders and acquaintances, asking one question and offering one piece of advice: We are deeply concerned about the potential for black-white confrontation on over this shooting. What are you doing to get out ahead of it? If you are not already planning to, then you must and fast.

And then we made these decisions internally. Our roles will be two-fold: (1) We will aggressively cover the news of the day, in fact and in context; and, (2) we will connect those who have power with those who do not by giving voice to those who have neither power or voice.

On Sunday, we made a third decision: We cannot become part of the news. That means neither our news journalists nor our Editorial Board journalists will stand “side-by-side” at the various press conferences or photo opportunities.

In part, I wish we could. In other instances, we have, especially among Editorial Board members. Being “in the know” gives us insights that add context and accuracy to our reporting and to our editorials.

Not this time. For us to appear at a press conference with one “side” or another would undermine our credibility and would add fuel to the factions that already believe we have taken sides. We believe we can do our best work by staying one step removed from becoming part of the news.

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