blogs.kxly.com

  As Melissa Luck and Annie Bishop have detailed in their excellent blogs posted below, this has been an exceptionally difficult day for journalists covering the Joseph Duncan death penalty hearing.  Ultimately, KXLY made a choice to leave out some of the most gruesome details of the case described in today’s opening statements by the prosecution. 

  Other media outlets have chosen to report those details, and there are certainly legitimate reasons to do so, given that this is an exceptionally high-profile case with so much at stake, namely, the life of a killer and justice for the victims and their families.  (The Spokesman-Review, whose coverage has been exhaustive since this story began, has posted the complete transcript of today’s opening statements.  Read at your own risk, and I say that in all sincerity.) 

  After much discussion, we decided to omit some of those details.  Though they were being presented for the very first time, I don’t feel they provided additional insight into what took place, except perhaps to make an already heinous crime somehow seem even more so.  In my mind, certain details of what the Groene children endured are so profoundly disturbing, it would be borderline unconscionable to present that information either on TV or our website, where anybody - children especially - might innocently stumble upon it.  Some may say that’s overly protective.  Maybe being the parent of three young girls has made me overly sensitive.  Still, I don’t regret our decision.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS