Channeling Perry Mason

What if a person of interest, isn’t?

You’ve all heard that phrase on your local newscast.

Used in a sentence, it would go something like: “Police said Mary Smith is a person of interest in the murder – here’s her picture.”

That one sentence can ruin Smith’s life. What if Smith turns out not to be a person of interest?

Standards have really slid on the local news. Maybe it's because the reporters fear the competition will beat them, or maybe it's because they weren't properly taught.


When I was a journalism student at Wayne State University, I took a class called Law of the Press. It was taught by Jake Highton, who worked on the copy desk of The Detroit News.

Jake taught us that unless and until someone involved in a crime has been arraigned in open court, you don’t use their name in your reporting. Innocent until proven guilty. Don’t mess with that maxim.

Jake also taught us another key point of law: saying “Police said” in your story does not cover your ass. Police say lots of things, and things can and do change prior to an arraignment. If Smith didn’t do it and wasn’t a person of interest, Smith can sue to the heavens and the journalist who used “police said” or “person of interest” for attribution doesn’t stand a chance.

A journalist cannot be sued for reporting the name of someone arraigned in open court. That’s when the charges are read against the accused, who is named in court for all to hear.

When I was the managing editor of a small newspaper in northern Michigan, a reporter brought back a story from the police beat. A girl had been raped. Police had told my reporter the father had done it.
The reporter thought he had hot, Page One news. He wanted to use the father’s name in his story.

I said no, and buried the story on 5A without using the father’s name.

Between the arrest and the arraignment, the girl’s eldest brother fessed up to being the rapist. The police had misinformed my reporter.

Oops.

Had we run the story with the name, we could never have apologized enough to the father.  And the father would have been the new owner of a dandy little newspaper.

Next time you hear the phrase “person of interest” on the local evening news, think about it. You could be staring at the picture of an innocent person who is on the television screen due to shabby reporting.