Press Talk: Of tough calls and Jon & Kate

When the call came in to my home early Sunday evening, I knew what it was about before I answered.

Someone was on the I-5 bridge, with a knife, with the intention of jumping.

I had earlier made contact with our newsroom about it. But now we needed to discuss what to do.

Suicides and attempted suicides are delicate issues.

The Columbian has general guidelines that say: If a suicide is committed privately, we try to avoid coverage. This idea is generally supported by those in the public, but it does have its critics. If we're not reporting suicides, the argument goes, the public doesn't get a feel for the extent of the issue.

And without that feel, there is less chance that we can correct it.

Yes, we can do general wrap-up stories on it, but that usually doesn't have the impact of seeing regular stories on it. In the end, we believe suicides are intensely private issues.

Of course, like anything, there are exceptions. If a high-profile person commits a suicide, we are likely to report it. And if a suicide is done in a very public manner, we are likely to report it.

With the Sunday incident, it was a very public display. The I-5 bridge was shut down — one way — and traffic was being backed up to reroute vehicles.

So I knew going in we had an obligation to cover it. Still, there were questions to be answered:

• How big should the coverage be?
• What kind of photos should we use?

We opted to play the story on the front page. It was just such a big public display and the resulting traffic issues were so huge, we didn't see any other choice.

With the photos, I asked that they be sent to my house before a decision was made. We had several options. But the two main options were traffic back-up photos and a photo of the person in question holding a knife.

I didn't want to overplay the person, so we decided to lead with the traffic problem photo. After all, that is what was impacting most people.

The photo of the person with the knife was a much more difficult decision for me. At first, I opted to not use it in our print edition but to use it on our Web site. Later, I decided to use it both in print and on the Web site.

But I asked that the photo of the person not be on the front page and for it not to be played too large on an inside page.

This isn't a science — decisions like this — but we do the best we can to be sensitive as well as to inform.

In the end, I felt these were the proper decisions. But I can understand if others disagree.

******

I haven't watched "Jon & Kate Plus 8" much in the years it has been on, but I do admit to tuning in when the couple announced that their marriage was coming apart.

For those of you not familiar with the show, it's about a couple dealing with one set of twins and one set of sextuplets. Cameras have been following their every move since the beginning.

The sad thing for me about this whole thing is that the reality series began as a documentation of a real family dealing with real issues, with real jobs and real struggles.

But as the money began pouring in, as the freebies began piling up, the reality became how they dealt with unreal situations. It became about the TV show and the freebies, not about them.

The media certainly take a large part of the blame, but blame also goes to the public — you and me — for watching this circus and giving it ratings so this family could live this surreal life.

And, as Kate said, the show must go on because, after all, that's how they make their living now.

Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian's editor. Reach him at lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.