This is to Pam Crace, who responded to my letter regarding the 12-year-old girl featured prominently on the front page of the Times-Union this past week.Pam,
Thank you so much for your response to my letter. You are absolutely right that I do not know the family involved and have no knowledge of their situation. If I offended you by my inference to "ineffective parenting," I apologize. Parenting is the most difficult and important job there is, and from your letter, I can see you feel the same way.
However, the main criticism within my letter was the printing of the name and address of a 12-year-old child who is a suspect in an alleged crime. I am appalled by the lack of ethics the Times-Union staff has shown by repeatedly putting this girl's name on the front page of the paper. A headline blared "12-Year-Old Charged as An Adult" one day, only to be recanted seven paragraphs down in a story the next day. (The charges were never brought by the prosecutor's office.)
You say you have had to call the police because of things your 12-year-old daughter has done. Was her name then printed on the front page of the paper? Think of how she would have felt going to school the next day. Think of how you would have felt going to work/the store/your church. Would public knowledge of your family's personal situation and that of your under age child make your job as parent any easier?
Our paper and the journalists who work there have an obligation to bring our community the news. However, they must also strike a balance between our right to know and the effect the news has on our community, and the people (i.e. children) within it. Is this the way those of us in Warsaw want to treat the young children in our community who may need rehabilitation and reform? By splashing their names on the front page of the paper, thereby subjecting them to humiliation and retribution? I certainly hope not. This paper is reflective of our community and the way we choose to support the most helpless within it, our children.
