Some in the Lancaster County Amish community are beseeching the media to step back and stop reporting on the Oct. 2 West Nickel Mines School tragedy. That’s when Charles Carl Roberts IV went on a shooting rampage in an Amish school house in Bart Township, killing five girls and injuring five others before shooting himself to death.


“I was asked to convey that they really do need to go through the grieving process,” said an Amish woman close to the families of the victims. “The reporting has been done. It is time to move on.”


She was one of two Amish women, along with two Amish men, who participated in a daylong seminar “Trauma: Covering and Recovering” at The Pressroom restaurant Saturday. The event drew 55 people, including area reporters, editors, college students, local fire police and state police.


Sponsored by Lancaster Newspapers Inc., the Pennsylvania Press Club and the Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association South-Central District, the seminar was the brainchild of journalists Maria Coole of the Sunday News and Linda Espenshade of the Intelligencer Journal.


The intent of the seminar was two-fold: to get constructive feedback on the coverage of the shootings; and secondly, to emphasize to reporters and editors that they too are personally affected by such tragedies and need to know how to take care of themselves.


Espenshade said she was grateful they were able to draw speakers who witnessed other national traumas; the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.




Respect, sensitivity




In his presentation, Joe Hight, managing editor of The Oklahoman and president of the International Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, outlined some of his experiences in covering the bombing by right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh. The tragedy claimed the lives of 168 people and injured hundreds of others.


Sometimes, he said, it is best for reporters to simply “back away” in such events in trying to interview those suffering from loss or death of loved ones. Indeed, most journalists are taught to be assertive, but some have crossed the line in invading people’s personal space.


Treating a potential source with respect and sensitivity will earn them more trust, and, in the end, probably a better chance of getting an interview anyway, he said. He cited examples of journalists dressing up as National Guardsmen to gain access to places off-limits to them or a photographer sneaking into a hospital’s intensive care unit to take pictures of children. Five minutes of such crass tactics can destroy 10 years of credibility, he noted.


(In covering the Nickel Mines shootings, a reporter from outside the state went so far as to disguise herself as an Amish woman to gain access to a funeral. Her mistake was wearing a pink dress, something an Amish woman would have never done.)


Speaker Barbara Monseu was a former assistant superintendent for Columbine High School when two students went on a shooting spree and killed 12 students and injured 24 others before taking their own lives.


Now she is president-elect of the National Center for Critical Incident Analysis, which studies such traumatic events to come up with more effective ways for all those involved—from police to the media — in handling them in the future.


She said solemnly that it’s likely someone out there is already planning “another thing, and it is going to be different.”


She said that Columbine High School, though it has been renovated to eliminate any reminders, “is still a tourist attraction.”


She gave numerous suggestions on how the community can be proactive in dealing with such profound events. For instance, they can keep the media at bay by designating a pool of journalists. The pool would be limited to a few key reporters who would do the reporting and, in turn, would feed the information to other reporters. This would cut down on the crushing barrage of journalists all asking the same questions and taking the same pictures.


She also said it is important for those in charge to give local media preference, as they are more likely to have the most sensitivity, simply because they live in the communities in which they are reporting.




‘Hurtful’ moments




At the seminar, representatives from the Amish community, who asked that their names not be used, said they were mostly distraught with the national media and satisfied with the local media’s conduct.


They said they were upset when a journalist offered money for interviews in order to write a book. And, the reporter in the pink dress “obviously didn’t do her homework,’’ one of the Amish women said.


They were also saddened that another reporter got the facts wrong about Amish funeral rituals and incorrectly reported that the Amish believe each mourner must shovel dirt on the coffin for the deceased’s soul to get to heaven.


“We feel these little girls’ souls went directly to heaven,’’ one Amish woman said. She asked journalists at the seminar to verify their facts, noting that the misinformation was “very hurtful.”


The sense among some local journalists, who participated in the seminar, was that the national media could have stayed away and relied on the local media to feed them the news. Sunday News photographer Vinny Tennis and photographer Marty Heisey, of the Lancaster New Era, said they tried diligently to respect the Amish when taking pictures.


“These are our neighbors, they are our readers, they are our friends,” Heisey said.


New Era reporters Cindy Stauffer and Ad Crable, who covered the shootings extensively, both felt conflicted on this assignment. Both are seasoned reporters who have covered all manner of stories. But, explained Stauffer, she felt “much more timid” in interviewing the Amish, who typically shy away from the media as part of their religion and culture. “It was a strange feeling for me,’’ said Stauffer.


Amish representatives and state police Trooper Blaine Hertzog said they were mostly satisfied with how the local media conducted itself. Hertzog said he was pleasantly surprised when he saw some people picking up trash in a parking lot left behind by the national media. As it turned out, the individuals cleaning up were members of the local press.


Nancy March, editor of The Mercury in Pottstown, who brought two reporters to the seminar, said it was worth her time.


“As professionals,’’ she said, “we do not examine the way we do our jobs nearly enough.’’ blog comments powered by Disqus