Junkies in the Public Garden? Tell a Swan.

This Boston Herald story by one of its staff photographers is a nice bit of on-the-spot work, but it also highlights one of the problems with the media in general - excessive detachment.  Herald photographer (reporter?) John Wilcox was right there in the Public Garden while three junkies shot up, and he took photos of the process.  So far, so good.  But then he walked off and went on his way.  He didn't call the police or the easy-to-find Park Rangers.  Instead, he told one of the kids operating the Swan Boats.

I wonder if Wilcox had internal conflict.  On the one hand, he's a journalist covering a story and should remain detached from it.  On the other hand, he's a citizen who knows he's watching a crime.  He must have wanted to tell someone.  So he chose a middle ground: do mostly nothing by telling a Swan Boat operator.  Look, I don't blame Wilcox.  He did the right thing by showing the photos to the Park Rangers after the junkie died.  This allowed the arrest of one of them,  perhaps the dealer.  And Wilcox took photos and wrote a story.  That's nice work.

But I wish reporters would realize that they're just like the rest of us: citizens with an ethical obligation to report crimes.  To the police.  Not the swans.

UPDATE: A paramedic friend of mine writes,

The people "working to revive" the victim are Boston EMS Paramedics.

They're not "EMTs".  The firefighters are there to assist Boston EMS, not the other way around.  It is not just semantics; the public should know the difference.

 

Further, the "unconscious" victim who "died later" was already dead at the scene.  Reporters write this all the time, and it is inaccurate. Any lay person can see from the photos that CPR is being done and they are breathing for the patient.  This, of course, is clinical death.  The article, as with so many others, gives the misleading impression (thanks to the police being the only ones to give out information) that the victim was alive until nothing else could be done at the hospital.

 

Notice that Lt. Sampson's name is prominently featured while the Medics and firefighters remain anonymous."

See also my comments in comments.

Comments

[matt]

We are Americans, not Germans.

I'll report a crime, if the crime needs to be reported.

My judgment.

And no journalist wants a reputation for narcing on his subjects. If that were the practice, no one would talk to journalists or let them hang around, and there would be no direct reporting about illegal activity.

But it is still a judgment call: if innocent people are being harmed, the harm done could be much worse than the general benefit of informing the public. That's especially true with terrorism, because terrorists use the media to serve their cause. Journalists who let terrorists use them to advance their message may well be complicit in terrorism.

But journalists should not narc on victimless crimes. That's my judgement, anyway.

[Ron Newman]

The question that nags me is: if the photographer had called 911 as soon as he saw the guy collapse, would the paramedics have arrived sooner enough to save the guy's life?

[Ron Newman]

Also, I don't understand your friend's distinction between "EMT" and "EMS". Isn't the first an Emergency Medical Technician, who works for the second, an Emergency Medical Service?

[carpundit]

Ron- Funny you should ask that first question. I asked it to, in correspondence today with a member of the press who is unhappy with my comments. The answer, of course, is maybe, but we'll never know.

As for the terminology, I guess it can be confusing to people unfamiliar with the systems. An "EMT" is an Emergency Medical Technician, who is a member of an Emergency Medical Service.

A "Paramedic" is also a member of an Emergency Medical Service, but a much more highly-trained and highly-skilled one, qualified to administer drugs and perform Advance Life Support techniques.

[jjdaley]

Matt: I would have emailed you privately, but I'm guessing that please@nomail.com is not going to get through. So I'll borrow a bit of CP's bandwidth to make my response.

I agree with most of what you say but I don't think a responsible person should be stigmatizing reporting a crime to the police as "narcing.' It's a privileged persons version of witness intimidation.

A journalist's calculation as to his or her role in a situation like that is a complicated one, I agree. But you did leave out one big factor in the equation: the journalists self interest in getting the story. It's a personal career and/or financial benefit that's often overlooked in these "public's right to know" arguments.

That said, I think Wilcox played it down the middle and did the right thing. It was compelling, on the spot reporting.

[carpundit]

JJdaley- you're welcome to use the bandwidth here anytime. I think you're right that Wilcox played it down the middle and gave us a good piece of reporting. And I'm not just saying that because I'm afraid Jay Fitzgerald is going to beat me up in a bar someday. (Can't go to Foley's anymore....)

[matt]

Good points, jjdaley. I hope no one is offended by my using a phony email address. It is more to protect myself from spambots than to have some sense of lurking in the shadows. I notice you give your web site URL instead, which is a good idea. I'm not currently running one, hence the phony address.

[EMS]

Emergency Medical Services(EMS)is the umbrella of which EMTs and Paramedics fall under. As far as the difference between EMTs and Paramedics is this: All paramedics must start out as EMTs or Emergency Medical Technicians. A Paramedic is more highly trained with more life saving maneuvers and interventions, including such things as IVs and medications. All paramedics start out as EMTs and work their way up the ladder and further their education to paramedic. A paramedic is actually recongnized by the state as an EMT-Paramedic. Its actually written on the state patch that way. EMTs and paramedics work together. In the photo of the front page of the Herald, there are both EMTs and Paramedics working. The only reason that fire is there is to justify their place or rather budget. Fire is becoming a bigger part, or rather a bigger thorn in the side of EMS by coming to calls to try to boost their own numbers, so that they can justify their payroll and budget to the bean counters.