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03/12/93
Journalists' panel looks at ethics of coverage
By Pete Slover / The Dallas Morning News
Even as the standoff in Waco stretches through its second week, a journalists' group has begun tackling the ethical questions posed in coverage of the Branch Davidian siege.
"If we don't discuss these things now, next time-and God knows there will be a next time-we won't have any guidelines,' said Dr. Martin L. Gibson, a communications professor at the University of Texas at Austin and chairman of the ethics task force formed by the Society of Professional Journalists.
The panel is looking at issues that cropped up in a series of journalistic oddities: Local reporters showed up at the Feb. 28 raid and were later to face suggestions that they tipped off the Branch Davidians; Dallas radio station KRLD-AM (1080) made a deal to play David Koresh's taped message, only to see the cult leader renege on his offer to free children in return; another Dallas radio talk show host circumvented a federal blockade of the compound's phone lines. He asked for and got a sign-a banner-hung by the Branch Davidian sect members.
The task force includes professors and print and broadcast journalists from across the country, with a goal of reporting their findings by April 1.
"Who knows? The siege may not be over by then,' Dr. Gibson said.
"It'll all be by fax and telephone. We don't have a budget.'
The questions the group will address include KRLD's involvement in the case. The station had an extensive dialogue with Mr. Koresh until the compound's phone lines were cut. The station and the Christian Broadcasting Network aired Mr. Koresh's 58-minute message at the behest of federal authorities.
In doing so, a media ethics expert said, the station risked its credibility, and that of the media generally.
"In general, any time you step out of the supposedly objective and fair role, you're taking a chance,' said Doug Ramsey, senior vice president for the Foundation for American Communications, a Los Angeles-based journalism think tank.
He said that the public might assume that deals for coverage are commonplace with police and other news subjects.
Station executives at KRLD said that they knew they would be second-guessed for breaking the journalistic traditions, even as the tape was being prepared for broadcast.
The station had broadcast two earlier, newsworthy messages from Mr.
Koresh, after which pairs of children were released, station manager Charlie Seraphin said. With that in mind, the tape deal was agreed to for the good of the sect children, in hopes of a safe resolution.
"I can't think of anything I would have done differently,' Mr.
Seraphin said. "I think many good, decent, reasonable people would agree.'
Another issue the panel will address is whether the Waco Tribune-Herald should have honored a request by federal authorities to delay publication of a series about the Branch Davidians, which ran the day before the Feb. 28 raid.
Survivors of some agents slain in the raid have criticized the paper, saying the series might have alerted the sect to the federal strike.
The panel will discuss whether the money spent by print and broadcast media from across the country could be better used in other ways, and whether the quality of coverage was impeded by the logjam of reporters, Dr. Gibson said. That issue will include whether newspapers and broadcasters should scale back their battle to have their own staffers at major events.
The task force also will review the way the media were treated by federal authorities, including the effect of restricted access to the cult, the area near the compound and most federal court records pertaining to the case.
The group's agenda was formulated before the latest incident, which has raised questions of journalistic ethics.
A talk-show host with radio station KGBS-AM (1190) on Tuesday broadcast a request for the Branch Davidians to hang a banner if they were listening. When the sect responded, federal authorities criticized the radio station for subverting the negotiating process, which has included isolation.
Station management defended the activity, saying their actions might have opened up negotiation, and contending they were a legitimate exercise of free speech.
Said Jim Long, KGBS program director: "What did we do? We left. How could we hinder the process? We don't have guns; we don't have an army of personnel down there.'
That action went beyond the expected, stubborn pursuit of a news story, said journalism ethics expert Stephen Klaidman, a fellow of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
The show-us-a-sign technique would have been improper for a "pure' news broadcaster-if not for a talk-show, he said.
"When a law enforcement agency is trying to contain a situation where lives are at stake, the press ought not to be interfering in a way that could threaten lives,' Mr. Klaidman said.
The task force findings will be reported to its members and possibly distributed to law enforcement agencies whose actions are included in the study, Dr. Gibson said.
"To ask these questions is not to presume an answer to any of them.
My ethics can't be your ethic. It's a very personal thing.'
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