Haidl coverage went too far for a family newspaper

Is it the journalist’s duty to report all the graphic details of a

trial about the alleged rape of a young woman? I don’t believe it is

necessary to tell all the explicit sexual details to write a good

news account, and I believe the Pilot went beyond the bounds of

ethical reporting by consistently repeating the pornographic

descriptions given in the courtroom.

The everyday recounting of the details just feeds into prurient

instincts. For what purpose? To shock? To win an award? To sell more

newspapers?

We are desensitized and accustomed to offensive words and pictures

everywhere. I dare say there are a few of us in the community who

would appreciate a straight news story without reading the graphic

details at the breakfast table. What a way to start the day. We

expect our newspaper to maintain a high level of integrity in its

coverage of local news.

The real tragedy of the mistrial shows several things. People are

confused about what is right and wrong. There should be no doubt in

anyone’s mind that what these young men did was wrong.

But today our relative values, void of moral absolutes, blur the

lines between right and wrong. Decisions are made based on feelings

instead of fact.

The fathers of these young men should be ashamed of themselves.

Did these dads teach their sons how to show women respect? Did they

encourage them to abstain from sex until they got married?

About 15 years ago, I was part of a small group of Costa Mesa

mothers called CICM, Citizens Involved in Costa Mesa. We gathered

petitions and persuaded the City Council to pass a law requiring

machines holding pornographic newspapers on public sidewalks to put

blinders on two thirds of the machines’ windows so that children

passing by would not have to look at pictures of naked women. What a

silly waste of time that was.

We obviously were naive in thinking that we could protect our

children, and other children, from the harmful effects of

pornography. What used to be considered pornography is now

commonplace. The pendulum has swung so far the other way. Nothing is

taboo as the behavior of these young people tells us. The free-speech

zealots have eliminated traditional rules of modesty and propriety,

and sad to say, newspaper journalism has fallen into the same slime

pit in its effort to compete.

Sex still sells, and this tragedy produced many news stories. I,

for one, vote for a newspaper that only prints news that’s fit to

print in a newspaper read by the whole family.

WENDY LEECE

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Wendy Leece is a Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation

Commissioner and a former member of the Newport Mesa Unified School

District Board of Trustees. Her opinion is in response to Pilot

Editor Tony Dodero’s July 4 column, “More on the Mistrial and new

faces in Newport-Mesa.”