News or Exploitation?

The last few months there has been coverage in our local paper about a local physician, at one of our major medical centers, who has had sexual charges brought up against him by a patient. There have been many articles written about him in our Duluth News Tribune, and the charges against him. The sexual charges were explicitly described. Each time the article ran, and at least once on the front page, the newspaper printed a photo of him. If I remember correctly, there have been charges brought up against doctors in the past and I remember one not that long ago from the other medical center in town.

Every time I have read one of these articles, I felt compassion. What if he is not guilty? These articles are written before he has been tried, he has not been found guilty yet. His career is ruined, even if he is found innocent. His wife works at the same medical center, and I have known her professionally, and feel so much compassion for her and their children. The last article written, gave their address, and talked about her. She is not the one on trial, it told about her mental health and even gave her name, was this all necessary? With every article published, I was tempted to write the newspaper to say that I felt they were exploiting the story. There have been some people that have written and expressed this. In this morning’s paper there is an article by the Editor of the News Tribune, defending that their stories, saying they were strictly news, that’s all, “just news.” I read what he had to say, I see some of his side, but still do not completely agree with how the stories were written. I think they could have been written differently, and the facts could be still be given. I don’t think it was necessary to always print the Doctor’s photo with each article. I’ve seen articles about other physician’s over the years being brought up on sexual charges, and there were never any photos, and I am pretty sure that the last one from another medical center, the name was not even given.

I felt moved this evening to write an e mail to the Editor, about this. I asked him to be more “compassionate” with stories like this. (I really do hope it does not show up on the editorial page though). I just felt that I had to say something. I was also thinking about writing a short note of “compassion” to the family. This must be very hard for all of them. I feel for them all, whether he is guilty or not guilty.