Naming Names: Privacy and the Public’s Right to Know
JOHN B. WEBSTER
Purdue University
A fifteen-year-old boy living in an affluent Hitesville neighborhood, considered normal and bright by his teachers, is
arrested for sexually abusing his half sister and ten neighborhood children. Through questioning him, police learn that
the molestations occurred over a period of four years and that the youth himself had been molested nearly all his life,
first by his natural parents and later by his foster father—a well-respected citizen. The foster father is also arrested.
The daily newspaper (circulation 48,000) chooses not to print the names of offenders or to identify the
neighborhood where the crimes occurred. As a result, numerous readers express concern, some by letter but most by
phone.
Says one reader: “For the past couple of years, the public has read on nearly a weekly basis the names of countless molestation
arrests, convictions, and sentences in the Gazette. And if one reads details, he or she would have noticed that the addresses of the
molesters were not in the affluent sections. So along comes a big case with a rich molester and rich victims involved, and all of a
sudden the Gazette is protecting these young victims.”
A caller says: “Give me his (the foster father’s) name. What are you protecting him for? I’ve heard he works for the
Gazette.” Another caller says: “You didn’t use the man’s name because he is one of your best advertisers.” Still another adds: “I
just want to protect my children. You’re not doing your job by not printing his [the fifteen-year-old offender’s] name in the
paper.”
The newspaper’s editor responds by publishing an editor’s note denying the charges. He adds, “The Gazette has an
ethics policy—and a good one, we believe—that protects innocent victims in the reporting of rapes and cases of incest
and child molesting. The policy reads:
We will NOT use the name of a rape or incest victim. We will NOT use the names of any person charged with or convicted of
incest—man or woman. We will NOT run names in morals cases (such as rape, child molesting, indecent exposure) until official
charges have been filed in court.”
The editor concludes his column with the following remark:
“Why did we use the details about the affluence of the neighborhood and the fact that the foster father holds a management
position with a local company? The answer is simply that it was important to point out the fact that child-molesting and incest
cases can happen in all neighborhoods and to all manner of people: It just doesn’t happen on the wrong side of the tracks; it
knows no financial or educational bounds.”
In another published commentary by the city editor, he admits that the rationale behind not printing the specific
name of the neighborhood was a hard question and adds that “a lot of soul-searching was involved.” While it is the job
of the newspaper to print the names of criminals so they can be identified and watched by society, he says, readers
should not forget that there are other victims—the children and the families in the neighborhood.
Eventually, the father receives a sentence of five years’ supervised probation for molesting his teenage son after a
judicial hearing that includes testimony from the man’s wife, letters from counselors, and attorney’s pleas. In crafting
the sentence, the judge requires that the offender submit to random lie-detector tests during the five years to determine
whether he repeats his offense while on probation.
The article does not name the offender even after the court hearing, even though it is pointed out that he plans to
remain in the community, continue in his same job, and to be active in his local church as well as to attend a sexualabuse family program. A policy note follows the article, stating once again that the newspaper policy is not to print the
names of child molesters in incest cases in order to protect the identity of the victims.
Micro Issues:
1. Most newspapers have policies that would not allow revelation of the victimized children’s names. Is that a
justifiable policy in this case?
2. Should the newspaper have identified the neighborhood where the molestations took place?
3. Should the teenager have been identified upon arrest?
4. Should the foster father have been identified upon arrest?
5. When the decision of the court had been made final, should the name of the molester have been printed then?
Middle-range Issues:
1. Do any of the following circumstances enter into your decision to publish or not to publish the name of the father
after the trial?
(a) The fact that the man now wishes to live in the community;
(b) The fact that the trial is a matter of public record;
(c) The fact that the man pled guilty.
2. If one of the following were true, would you feel compelled to tell what you know to the parties involved? If so,
why?
(a) Your neighbor’s son has been invited to spend the night with the boy who was the victim/perpetrator in the
case;
(b) You have friends who attend church with the molester;
(c) You have friends who live on the same block as the molester.
3. If the answer to any of the questions above was yes, how do you justify your newspaper’s decision not to tell the
entire community at once?
Macro Issues:
1. Did the paper open itself to accusations of protection of the affluent establishment and rumors of economic ties to
the newspaper when it refused to reveal the specific neighborhood? Did it handle the resulting controversy well?
How could the concept of right to know, need to know, want to know have helped the paper explain its decision?
2. List the pros and cons of a policy naming child molesters when incest is involved.