Murderous Reporting

THE RASH OF violence which broke out in Boston ten days ago and threatened to erupt into a full scale racial war has subsided--at least for the time being. But the underlying tension which fed the events still remains. And the critical role the news media can play in the city's balance of tension was clearly demonstrated last week.

The Boston press has already come under much criticism for its coverage of the burning murder of Evelyn Wagler and the stabbing death of Ludivico Barba. Banner headlines reading "Woman Torched to Death" and "Man Stoned to Death by Youths" on successive days were sensational, especially when compared with the actual circumstances.

The gasoline murder of Wagler on October 2 was a vicious, senseless act, but when police discovered Barba's body near the predominantly black Columbia Point housing project the following day, newspapers jumped the gun in assuming it was another "roving gang" slaying.

The so-called stoning of Barba may or may not have occurred as eyewitnesses reported--a gang of black youths was seen throwing rocks near Barba shortly before his death--but it has been clear since the night of Barba's death, when the autopsy was released, that he died of stab wounds. Two youths were arrested and charged for robbery and murder on the following day. Yet, eager to carry the story of Boston's second "white murdered by gang of blacks," The Boston Globe, The Herald-American, The New York Times, The New York Daily News and other national newspapers all relied on sketchy police reports that black youths had thrown rocks at Barba and reported his death thusly.

The deluge of coverage which followed Barba's death threatened to tip the precarious balance in the Roxbury and Dorchester areas. Although on the following day most papers reported that Barba had died of stab wounds, they continued to play up any incidents of interracial conflict which occurred and returned to the Wagler incident for more "in-depth" coverage. Saturday's papers was a battle of one-ups-manship to see which paper could offer the most colorful background story of the Wagler death, including a simulation of Wagler's one block run to the liquor store--minus the flames but with a vivacious model as Wagler.

PERHAPS ONE OF the most curious parts of the week's news coverage was the media's failure to play up the brutal attack of a black schoolgirl by a gang of white youths wielding baseball bats and rubber hoses. The failure to adequately report this and several other incidents involving white attackers brought charges of racist reporting. The Progressive Labor Party dramatized their notion of a "conspiracy to stir up racial violence" by taking over The Boston Globe's advertising office and demanding that the Globe print a PLP statement denouncing the coverage.

Although Globe Managing Editor Edward J. Doherty called the conspiracy charge "wild, radical and irrational," he admitted that the contention that coverage of the events may have been biased was at least partially valid. According to Doherty, "The fact is that the news media got excited about this [the two consecutive murders] much more than they probably would have if they had happened to a black person."

Except for the grave mistake involved in reporting Barba's death, the media's largest error in covering these events was its lack of discretion. The newspaper headlines went far beyond merely reporting the events. Instead of using neutral words such as "set afire" in headlines, the papers went to sensational, emotion-packed words like "torched."

IN A CITY BESET by over 150 murders each year, it is odd that two should be treated so differently. For the most part, the stories which reported the murders were accurate (discounting of course the Barba fiasco) but the prominence assigned th stories and the subsequent graphic, and follow-up reporting was badly overdone.

On Sunday, Boston Mayor Kevin White criticized the news media for having "blown all out of proportions" these events, saying that "we weren't near a racial war, but if you read the newspapers for a couple of days, even I was apprehensive that the town was going to go up, and I couldn't tell myself why."

News reporters can only be expected to react to events with human reactions. Yet they face a very grave responsibility when they must interpret daily events.

In a large city such as Boston this responsibility is even more acute because of the population's wide diversity. Nonetheless, the most important characteristics a newspaper should display are accuracy and discretion. There were several serious racial confrontations in Boston in the past two weeks. But the events and reporting of them should serve notice to the news media that their role in influencing people and mobs is a vital one that must be handled with the utmost seriousness and discretion in reporting.