It's A Matter Of Fairness

I remember as a kid my parents watching "I Love Lucy."

Lucy (Lucille Ball) was always getting into scrapes with her husband, a Cuban musician named Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz.)

In a thick Cuban accent, he would say "Looooceeee, you have some esplaining to do."

Well, I feel a bit like Lucy these days so I am going to take a bit of time and newspaper ink to do a little explaining.

We had a story last week and a second one this week about an Akron man who is facing charges of voyeurism.

It has long been my policy to list the occupations of people who run afoul of the law only if it is relevant to the story.

If a gun dealer got arrested for selling a gun to a felon, of course we would identify him as a gun dealer.

If a daycare worker was molesting children, of course we would identify the person as a daycare worker.

As it happens, the person accused as a voyeur was an executive.

So when we wrote the story, we didn't identify the person as an executive because it wasn't relevant to the story.

The fact that he was an executive was salacious. It was sensational. But in my view, it wasn't relevant.

That was my call. That's my policy.

Just as it wouldn't have been relevant if he was a plumber.

But, of course, if he was a plumber, no one would have cared whether or not his occupation was listed.

I realize there is a sinister facet of human nature that seems to make us gloat over the misfortunes of those more fortunate than us.

It's like it brings them down a notch or something.

Seems to me that listing the occupation of the executive but not the plumber panders to that emotion.

Other newspapers don't seem to share my view on this topic, and that's certainly their prerogative.

To some out-of-town newspapers, the fact that he was an executive seemed to be big news. It was in the headlines.

And my guess is, if he would have been a plumber, out-of-town newspapers probably wouldn't have even picked up the story.

I am not averse to change, and perhaps it might be time for a change in policy.

Because as it is, readers are a suspicious lot.

So when they read somewhere else that the guy was an executive, they probably figured their local paper was trying to hide something from them.

That in itself might be a good reason to change the policy.

But it opens up a whole host of questions.

The reason for having policies on anything is fairness. And policies - if they're worth anything - have to be fair and consistent.

Like our policy on running county jail bookings. If you are booked into jail, we publish it. It doesn't matter who you are. We don't make exceptions.

And I list the occupations of arrested people if it's relevant to the story, regardless of the occupation.

That's fair. That's consistent.

So, for the sake of argument, if I were to change that that, would we list the occupation if you're a professional, but not if you're a laborer?

Is that fair?

We'd list your occupation if you're a senior vice president, but not a regular vice president?

What if you're a marketing guy, a general manager or a shift supervisor?

Where do we draw the line?

Maybe we could just list the occupation of every person who gets arrested.

That would be fair.

But that also would be ponderous because we don't always know what a person's occupation is. We'd have to track them all down.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe we don't need a policy at all and I should just follow my instincts and run all the gory details I perceive my readers demand.

Thankfully, these things don't come up too often, but I'm inclined to keep the policy of listing the occupation of an arrested person if it's relevant to the story.

And it's worth mentioning here that public officials are on a completely different level.

They are held to a higher standard by the press because they are paid by tax dollars.

If the mayor gets arrested for jaywalking, he'll be in the headlines on page one. (Sorry, Ernie.)

If the plumber gets arrested for drunk driving, he'll be in the bookings on page 3.

I suppose I just wanted readers to get a sense of my thoughts on this and I am always happy to gain insight from readers.

So if you're inclined, let me know what you think about this.

As I said earlier, I am not averse to change.