WHAT GIVES : A note from the readers
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/65072/
Last week, I asked readers for their thoughts about how a newspaper should deal with a circumstance like Steve Clark’s, the candidate for Fayetteville mayor whose terms as Arkansas’ attorney general ended with a felony conviction for theft by deception.
The question: In reporting the mayor’s race over the coming months, to what extent do news stories need to remind readers of Clark’s past crime, for which he received a pardon. His criminal record has been expunged.
As one could predict, opinions were varied, from the folks who say Clark’s violation of the public trust back then needs to be mentioned every time his name is brought up, to the Clark supporters who say it’s old news that doesn’t need to be further aired in the context of Fayetteville’s mayoral campaign.
My invitation elicited a number of responses from people who have come to know Clark since he moved back to Fayetteville. It’s not overstating things to say that he’s impressed people by his openness about his conviction, how his alcoholism influenced poor decision-making, and how his actions messed up his life for years. They hail his efforts in the 18 years since his conviction to discover what’s important in his life and to change for the better.
One reader asserted that newspapers should recognize the difference between news and history, and how myopic it is to take one element of a person’s life — their worst offense — and use it to define a whole life.
Many of the folks who believe it unnecessary to mention Clark’s criminal conviction over and over also recognized that his past had to be reported anew as he, for the first time, re-entered public life by announcing his campaign for Fayetteville mayor. Clark himself is acutely aware that the past would have to be discussed and dealt with if he had any chance to ultimately focus on the issues facing the next Fayetteville mayor.
But, they point out, the information is out there now. It would be virtually impossible for any voter who seeks to be informed about the candidates to miss the fact that Clark was once attorney general and, yes, he left that office in disgrace. It doesn’t require a mention of that fact after every reference to Clark to make sure the voting public knows about his history.
One person who responded to my invitation posed this question: If this were you, Greg, or your son or brother or father, and their experience had mirrored Steve’s, how would you wish for them to be publicly acknowledged ?
Fair question. I would hope a single mistake wouldn’t forever be used against him or me. I would hope that people could see past that mistake. But I would not expect historians or newspapers to never mention it again when his name came up. Let’s say my brother was John Hinckley. Should I ever expect a story about him to simply identify him as, say, a songwriter ? Or does that presidential target practice back in 1981 merit a mention in any and all stories about him from now on ?
Clark is no Hinckley by a long shot. But the similarity is they are both marked by the one thing they did for which they became most renowned. Perhaps before Clark shuffles off this mortal coil, he will have done other things that overshadow his conviction. But it will forever be part of his public life.
That said, I can’t imagine this newspaper adopting an approach that demands every mention of Steve Clark to delve into his past conviction. As the mayor’s race marches on, sooner or later coverage will have to deal with the issues being debated among the candidates. There will undoubtedly be times that writing only about the issues and the candidates’ views on them will be the best way for us to serve our readers.
If another candidate brings up Clark’s conviction in the course of a forum, that’s needs to be reported. When stories attempt to give the background on the candidates, no reporter can pretend Clark’s history doesn’t exist. Reporters will just have to decide when Clark’s past is extremely relevant to a specific story.
Come election day, voters will have to decide how relevant Clark’s past is as far as their ballot goes. It will be mentioned enough that everyone will be aware of his past, but the actual campaign for mayor will necessarily become the focus. The answers candidates give relative to their ideas for Fayetteville will be what matters most.
There’s certainly no argument that people deserve second chances, and they can rise from the ashes, so to speak, to achieve great things. Just look at Robert Downey Jr., whose drug use nearly killed him and certainly almost cost him his career. Today, because he cleaned up his act and took advantage of opportunities people offered even when they knew it was dicey, he’s starring in a movie that’s at the top of the box office list.
But Downey knows even today that stories about him will sometimes refer back to his disastrous younger life of jail and drugs.
It’s not a newspaper’s role to determine when forgiveness is deserved; voters will decide that. But Clark no doubt deserves an ability to deliver his message to voters about what he believes the next mayor needs to do.
So, here’s what I anticipate happening as newspapers cover the campaign for the mayor’s office that currently includes Clark, Lioneld Jordan and Walt Eilers: Clark’s past will be weaved into a story when it seems relevant, and there will be other stories in which it deserves no mention at all. Case by case, reporters and editors will have to decide whether that information is important to the context of that story.
Undoubtedly, when this newspaper and others do preelection profiles just before election time on the candidates, no profile will be complete without a mention of the past. That will apply to each candidate.
My hope is that, in then end, our readers will have been armed with the information by which they can accurately judge the candidates for who they are and the ideas they espouse. As long as they can do that, democracy wins.
Greg Harton is executive editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times. His column appears on Sundays.