By Michael Eng | Managing Editor
The sun had almost completely set by the time my wife and I arrived at our children’s preschool to pick them up Dec. 14.
As we entered their classroom, I stood in the doorway for just a second, taking in our 2-year-old daughter, Aria, and 4-year-old son, Lyric, before they caught us watching. Then, we scooped them up and buckled them into our minivan.
We kept the TV and computers off. And, like many parents, we gave them extra hugs at bedtime. They crawled into their beds, blissfully unaware of the horror that had occurred.
With our two children safe, I reopened my laptop and dug through dozens of reports in an attempt to piece together what actually had taken place that morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
As I read more about Newtown, Conn., its similarities to our city became strikingly clear. A tight-knit town of about 28,000 residents, Newtown is a community rich in history. Despite its close proximity to major metropolitan areas, its small-town feel makes it an attractive home for families.
Newtown has one Starbucks and one public library. It has a famous American flag that waves from a pole installed in the middle of the intersection of Main Street, Church Hill Road and West Street.
Newtown residents get their news from The Newtown Bee, a home-owned community weekly newspaper much like the one you are holding today. Before Friday, The Newtown Bee was filling its December pages with tree lightings, Christmas concerts, decisions made by its local government officials and, of course, high school sports.
Sound familiar?
When news of the shooting came across the police scanner, Bee Editor Curtiss Clark sent Associate Editor Shannon Hicks over to the school to investigate. She was one of the first journalists on the scene, and her photo of students being led from the school is on pace to be one of the most shared pictures in Twitter history.
The Bee covered the tragedy the only way it knew how — with care and compassion for the residents of Newtown. However, as reporting from national and international news outlets flooded the small town, a backlash began to build. Some viewed certain photos and interviews — particularly ones that featured children — as intrusive and damaging. Journalists fought back, arguing that, in some cases, the children were the only witnesses. They were there to document history, they said. In the spirit of news, it was their duty.
In some ways, I see their point. Some of the most poignant stories — of slain teacher Victoria Soto, who hid her students in a bathroom closet and placed herself between them and the shooter; and of the student who claimed he knew karate and would protect his classmates — may never have been told without the press. Furthermore, the news has prompted school districts throughout the country to reexamine their safety precautions — including right here at home (see related story).
On Monday morning, I met with our reporters to listen to their take. Like The Newtown Bee’s Hicks, our own reporters would be among the first to arrive on scene if, God forbid, something similar occurred in Plant City. But where would we draw the line? When does reporting become harassment?
Turns out, the answer was posted on The Newtown Bee’s Facebook page Monday morning.
“On behalf of the entire staff of The Bee — we are imploring ALL our colleagues and journalists to PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE VICTIMS,” The Bee stated. “We acknowledge it is your right to try and make contact, but we beg you to do what is right and let them grieve and ready their funeral plans in peace.”
Within hours, the post was shared more than 400 times and garnered hundreds of comments from those who matter the most — the residents of Newtown (see sidebar below). Some of the accounts were sickening — the antithesis of the kind of journalism we practice at the Plant City Observer. Others were desperate pleas for privacy, for time to grieve and heal.
Clark said the original post is a reflection of a clear delineation between community journalism and national media outlets.
“Our mission is primarily to serve our community,” he said. “And you don’t do that by trampling on people’s privacy.”
Clark said the tragedy has hit his newsroom hard — and especially his education reporter, who knew all six adults who were killed and several of the children.
“It was hellish,” he said. “We were trying to do our job while neck-deep in grief.”
As a weekly that hits homes on Fridays, last week’s edition of The Bee already had gone to press. So, Clark’s staff utilized its website and Facebook and Twitter pages to publish information. The paper also pulled double-duty last weekend to publish a special edition. And, The Bee is doing all of this with dozens of satellite trucks and countless reporters invading its home turf.
“We’re getting calls every few minutes,” Clark said. “Because we’re the local guys with the contacts, everyone wants us to work on their stories with them, but we have our own stories to do.”
Furthermore, when the circus finally does pack up, Newtown — and its paper — still will have to endure the consequences.
“We happen to know these people,” Clark said. “We’ll have to face these people at Starbucks next week and a couple of months from now. If what we are doing is causing anguish and pain, and if we’re not letting them grieve, then that poisons the well. We live here.”
So, to the media still scouring the homes and streets of Newtown: You don’t need another sound byte, another interview. You don’t need another child to tell you about the “loud bangs.” You’ve delivered the story — all the way around the world. We’ve received the message here in Plant City. Time to move on.
Show some humanity.
NEWTOWN RESIDENTS RESPOND
Editor’s note: Names have been withheld from these comments on The Newtown Bee’s Facebook page.
• “I had a person from CBS news lie to me and say she was a friend of one of the grieving mothers. She came with a plant, and so we let her on the property, only to find out she was with the news. Some of these people just don’t have a soul.”
• “PLEASE GO AWAY AND LET US ALL HEAL! Pray for us from afar. Send your well wishes from your own home. Get the trucks, vans and cameras away from us. Move along, please!”
• “Is anyone else getting calls from the Washington Post? We lost a couple of our neighbors on my block, and I think they’re just calling people randomly looking for comments. Two calls so far.”
• “The phone calls from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. need to stop. And coming to my doorstep was completely out of line. LEAVE US ALL ALONE.”
• “I will be more than angry if they also invade the children trying to start their new school. I am driving my boy that day, and I will be damned if someone sticks a camera in the faces of those kids.”
• “Allow them to grieve in peace. Send your prayers, not your employees.”
• “We will not be able to heal as a town until the media leaves! We appreciate the prayers from all over the world but just want our town back.”
• “This is not your average mass murder. The victims are mainly all small children. Please let the families grieve and stop looking for possible coverage into the lives of the families. They were normal people like everyone else.”
• “Leave this poor town alone. If they need anything, they will let you know …”
• The media should be ashamed at how they get the poor children in front of the camera. … I don’t care if you have the parents’ permission, we don’t need the gory details and they do not have to relive them.”