Bad press—a leaked e-mail, a newspaper story, a suicide

What responsibility if any should a newspaper take when it reports on one man´s private correspondence to an elected-official that leads to his suicide? That is the journalism debacle that is being debated in San Antonio, Texas following a tragic incident that involved a resident, a city councilwoman, a powerful international contractor, and the Hearst-owned Express-News.

Earlier this month, a reporter with the newspaper put together a story after receiving a leaked private e-mail sent by George Dickerson to city councilwoman Elena Guajardo complaining about the noise at a nightclub called Graham Central Station near where he lived. “The entertainment Graham Central Station provides for their customers,” he wrote, “is of a lude (sic), lascivious, low class, debaucheristic, criminalistic, riot insistic, anarchist nature.”

Although the complaint could be seen as a valid one from a constituent to his city representative, Guajardo she called it racial and discriminatory because it appeared to pit the non-hispanic community against Mexican-American residents. She denied that she was ths source of the leak.

Dickerson used an office computer at the H.B. Zachry Construction Corp. to send his e-mail. But because this was allegedly the second such racially charged e-mail to a city representative to come out of Zachry´s computer server, the Express-News viewed the e-mail as public record and decided to publish it.

Dealing with the bad press and uproar in the community, Zachry fired Dickerson. Two days later, the 52-year-old man took his own life.

Speaking on behalf of the newspaper, columnist Bob Richter wrote on Sunday that there was no one to blame for the suicide but Dickerson himself. Another columnist Ken Rodriguez went to the nightclub and reported on Friday that there was some truth to Dickerson´s complaint. But he gave a startling revelation – some of the club´s patrons were off duty police officers who supported Dickerson´s claims by acknowledging that they recognized many customers who are former prison inmates and others who are wanted on various criminal complaints!

This sad, sorid story is not a first. Unfortunately, bad press coverage has led and will continue to lead to tragic incidents. These are news stories that are the products of outrage, poorly thought-out conclusions, and an editor´s rush to get the story out. As journalists, we have the obligation to report the truth but we cannot forget that we too are human beings and sensitivity over one man´s death should not be overlooked.