The Scarlet Newscast

Local NBC affiliate, KARE 11, broadcast a story Thursday about 16 men who had been arrested over the past two months at a park in Burnsville on suspicion of indecent exposure, a misdemeanor charge. The broadcast featured mugshots of the men who were arrested, and a KARE 11 camera crew showed up on the front lawn of an unsuspecting 80 year old who was one of those arrested. The Pioneer Press ran a similar story Friday, which listed the names and ages of those arrested, and while the Star Tribune wrote a piece on the arrests, it did not list the names of those involved.

Opinion: The Scarlet Newscast

The Kare 11 story, titled “Police raid park to stop sex crimes,” was illustrative of sensationalistic news coverage, and both Kare 11 and the Pioneer Press coverage was indicative of “shameful” journalism; they crossed the line from straight journalism to becoming a tool of law enforcement authorities to shame people.

KARE 11 admittedly complied with a police request to show mugshots of all 16 men in an effort to shame them. KARE 11’s Julianna Olsen says in her story, “Police say their presence hasn’t stopped the men. They hope publicizing their lewd behavior will.” And KARE 11 was more than happy to oblige.

Police use of shame is not new, but it is controversial. Police in several cities, including St. Paul, post photographs online of men who are found guilty of soliciting prostitutes in an effort to shame these men, and detour others from committing the same crime. Oakland, Calif. even bought out billboards certain neightbohodds to shame “johns.” The police aren’t crossing an ethical, objective line when they post those images online, but the media is.

The media’s job is to report the facts: six men were arrested as a result of a sting operation in a Burnsville park involving indecent exposure. TV news crews don’t show up at the homes of people who have been arrested for drunk driving during sobriety check points, a version of a ‘sting operation,’ and the media does not post images, en masse, of people arrested for driving while intoxicated. Drunk driving is incredibly more dangerous and disruptive to society than middle-aged men having it off in the bushes.

Representatives from the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune say that neither newsroom has a policy surrounding the identification of those who break the law. For alleged minor crimes, both publications rarely print the names of those arrested because court cases are often settled quickly and many people are able to fight the charges against them. But when the arrest is “unusual and interesting,” as both representatives asserted, then personal identification becomes part of the story. ‘Unusual and interesting’ lead to sensational headlines.

In this case, sensational headlines will likely lead to the breakup of families, divorce, depression, and a host of other punishments that do not fit the crime. These men were convicted in the court of public opinion without a trial. And no media outlet bothered to explore what would possess someone to go to a park to seek sex and risk arrest.

Sergeant Jeff Witte told Kare 11 that indecent exposure is not only illegal, but poses a safety risk for the neighborhood. “We want (residents) to be aware of their surroundings at all times,” he said. Witte didn’t elaborate what safety risk closeted gay men might pose to the neighborhood. Perhaps a hiker might trip over one.

This sensational story leaves many other questions unanswered. Why did KARE 11 show up on the front lawn of an 80-year old man? Were they going to ask for a detailed description of what he was doing with other men in the park, and then broadcast it on the nightly news? Why does the Pioneer Press list the names of people caught with their pants down in a park, and not do the same for drunk driving arrests? Or every domestic assault in the city? Or vagrancy? They all carry the same misdemeanor charge.

The answer, in part, is because sex sells. Man on man sex sells even more, and making the neighborhood afraid of the nasty homosexuals is a goldmine.

The solution isn’t arrests and shaming people in sensationalistic news reports. Make it less difficult to be a gay person in Minnesota, and you won’t have to worry about closeted men in the bushes.