Behind the news: a look into the S&B's coverage

As news editor for the S&B, I usually deal with very mundane problems. A story I had been planning on running in one week is unusable because a reporter wasn’t able to get in touch with a key source. Limited space forces me to make decisions about what articles to cut. I try to keep our political coverage as neutral as possible.

This week made all those problems seem trivial. On Tuesday morning I became aware via GrinnellPlans that Paul Shuman-Moore ’09 was missing. At that point I—and almost everyone else on campus—had no idea what lay ahead—and we still don’t. Regardless, it was something that the student newspaper should cover.

I sent out an e-mail to all our writers asking for someone to keep tabs on the search, with the end goal of writing a story for this week’s paper, and Sarah Pierce ’08 responded within minutes. But we could also do more. Paul could be nearby, in a situation where anyone could find him. But not everyone knew that Paul was missing, what he looked like or the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. We are a weekly paper, but this new blog meant that we could offer news on a minute-by-minute basis. I took information from the best source then available, the Plan of Ian Lunderskov ’08, and posted it for anyone to see.

Our early postings on the blog were little more than amalgamations of rumors. Many of the initial pieces of information we posted turned out to be false leads, and we corrected those when we became aware of them. With the chance to find Paul quickly, though, the benefit from putting information up with a disclaimer potentially outweighed the harm. In the long run, though, we needed to move beyond that. Our next post was a more measured news story including input from authorities helping with the search.

At the same time that I was working on putting whatever useful information we could on our blog, I also had to do something much more unpleasant: consider the possible endings for this scenario, and how we as the student newspaper would react to each one. By the end of Tuesday, it was clear that no matter what happened, this would be the dominant story for this issue; I talked with our editors-in-chief and we decided to move our previous Page One centerpiece, an article about the Elephantitis Ultimate Frisbee tournament, back to the sports pages. I also e-mailed my editor at the Seattle Times (where I interned over the summer), Grinnell alum Kim Eckart ’92, for advice on what tone to take in our article.

By the time I started laying out this week’s S&B Wednesday night, with still no sign of Paul, I had decided to devote the entire front page to this story. Everything else was just less important. A couple of articles I had been planning on running this week were pushed back. I also sat down with Sarah Pierce and we outlined what we would do under different scenarios.

We also made another key decision Wednesday night about what not to publish: the information that Sarah had learned of a note that Paul left behind. Grinnell Police Chief Jody Matherly had told reporters that Paul was “despondent” before disappearing, and we also knew that Paul’s family had asked that the note not be publicized. We decided to respect their wishes.

The Des Moines Register made a different decision. Finding out about the note in the same way we did, they published its existence in a headline and the first sentence of a front-page story. Local—and national—TV news also broadcast the note’s existence. The other S&B editors and I quickly revisited our decision. We still respected the parent’s wishes, but the news had broken. We decided that with the news out there, it was better that Grinnell students find out from us than from the Des Moines Register. But concerned about the ramifications of publishing such sensitive information, we called a number of experts around the area, including an RLC, Director of Communication Kate Worster Foster ’87, Tom Crady, the Health Center, the Poweshiek County Mental Health Center and the mother of one of our editors, who is a professor of journalism ethics. Not everyone was there when we called, but those we were able to reach supported our decision with some revisions. We made those, ran our post past everyone, and then published the existence of the note on our blog.

We’ll continue to cover this story as it breaks, and hope for a happy ending. We’re very conscious of the dual role we must play as a newspaper reporting facts and as members of the Grinnell community sensitive to community needs. We hope to fulfill those responsibilities as best we can. Any concerns or comments that readers have are welcome.