The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Good and bad of criminal coverage

ONE STORY dominated the News section of The Cavalier Daily for the last week and a half.

Every edition of the paper between Nov. 3 and Nov. 12 contained a front-page article on the trial of former University student Andrew Alston for killing Charlottesville firefighter Walter Sisk. Cavalier Daily reporters covered the six-day trial from opening arguments to the sentencing and provided readers with complete daily accounts of the proceedings.

Trials can present problems for reporters because witnesses' various testimonies often conflict. They challenge journalists to present every version of events in a balanced way. In general, The Cavalier Daily's reporters managed to do just that.

The stories that ran throughout the trial included testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses that both helped and hurt Alston's case. The reporters placed information from one witness next to contradictory information from another so that readers could see the difference in the two accounts. The articles became slightly confusing at times because they contained so much information, but the writers generally organized them well.

Murder trials don't proceed in the dramatic fashion portrayed on "Law & Order" or other television crime dramas, but a palpable tension hangs over the courtroom. A complete account of a day in the courtroom needs to contain that kind of information. The mix of Cavalier Daily reporters who covered the trial successfully conveyed that emotion through the details in their stories.

Associate editors Monika Galvydis and Kathleen Meyers, for example, described how Alston "began sobbing loudly and had to be escorted from the courtroom" as a medical examiner described the stab wounds on Sisk's body. Senior writer Jason Amirhadji wrote about the "apparent surprise of many in the courtroom" at some of the defense testimony and the "sarcastic tone" the prosecutor took when cross-examining witnesses. And Amirhadji illustrated how Alston hugged his attorneys in "apparent grief" while "spectators on Alston's side of the courtroom cried" after the jury recommended he serve three years in prison.

Amirhadji nicely tied up the trial coverage on Friday with an article giving University law professors' interpretations of the jury's decisions ("Experts call jury sentence 'compromise'"). Amirhadji's article gave readers some insight into the verdict and sentence and offered a glimpse into what the future possibly holds for Alston.

In my limited experience as a professional reporter, I covered a couple of murder trials. They were by far the most difficult events I've ever had to write about. The reporters who watched the Alston trial seemed to handle it capably and produced a series of solid articles.

Covering Schaub

Charlottesville police arrested former Cavalier quarterback Matt Schaub early on the morning of Nov. 6 after he and two other people allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old man outside Buffalo Wing Factory & Pub on Elliewood Avenue.

Monday's News section contained a brief article on the incident that gave the basic details of what happened, mostly according to a police statement and an Associated Press article ("Schaub arrested on assault charges"). The incident was particularly newsworthy because of Schaub's high profile at the University, but The Cavalier Daily routinely publishes similar stories about crimes that don't involve people as well-known as the current Atlanta Falcons player.

The problem with the paper's coverage of the arrest came from a second article that ran in the Tuesday Life section and consisted entirely of four students' opinions of Schaub's guilt or innocence ("Speaking of Schaub"). The story simply served no journalistic purpose.

The four people interviewed presumably do not know Schaub personally and knew nothing about the alleged assault beyond what they heard or read in the news. The Cavalier Daily would not assign a reporter to randomly ask people for their opinions about whether an average student they had never met actually committed a crime they had only read about. The paper should not have taken a different approach in Schaub's case despite his prominence.

The Life article amounted to a trial in the proverbial court of public opinion using jurors who weren't qualified to pass judgment. The students who were interviewed -- like everyone else who didn't witness the incident -- don't have all the facts. That's not fair to Schaub, and it's especially not fair to his accuser.

Until more information about the incident surfaces or Schaub appears in court, The Cavalier Daily fulfilled its obligation to report on his arrest with the Monday news article. The newspaper never should have run the other story.

Jeremy Ashton can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.

Local Savings

Comments

Latest Video

Latest Podcast

Following the revival of the Sex and Relationship Column, Life desk editors Kate Johnson and Dana Douglas reflect on the process of developing and producing the new column as well as the importance of having safe spaces on Grounds to discuss often stigmatized and taboo topics.