Out of touch

The editor of the Sun-Sentinel editorial page, Earl Maucker writes the following.

Yes, we have a policy not to use the names of juveniles accused of crimes.

We feel that in most cases where juvenile offenders are involved, their interests trump public curiosity and we elect not to name them. It could be argued that that kind of negative publicity could mark them for life, so we err on the side of being sensitive.

Once someone is charged as an adult, however, or if the crime is so heinous that it is in the public interest to name the offender, we will publish the name.

Then read this post of mine on a Sun-Sentinel story in May 2005.

LAKE WORTH — The two officers stared down at the pile of stones, saw only a small hand and a foot sticking out and assumed the little girl they had frantically searched for was dead.


Finally, they had found her at a secluded landfill, her body stuffed inside a large bright yellow recycling bin, with rocks and crushed concrete covering her. The bin lay inside a trash container, a dismal last resting place.

The officers summoned a superior, Lake Worth Detective Lt. Dave Matthews, who, after seven tense hours of hunting, also thought the case had ended in the worst of tragedies.

And then something happened.

"Her hand just moved!" Matthews shouted.

Moments later, the officers had unearthed an 8-year-old girl who had lived through a nightmare but survived to identify a teenager as her abductor, sexual attacker and would-be killer, police said.

That was the Palm Beach Post's coverage of the story. My post continued-

The girl was in St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach Sunday, where medical staff said she was in good condition. Her alleged assailant, Milagro Cunningham, 17, of Lake Worth, was in custody, on charges of attempted murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment. Police said he had confessed.

*****

Contrast the Palm Beach Post coverage of this story with the one in today's Sun Sentinel.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is not identifying the suspect or the victim because of their ages and the nature of the charges. Their relatives are also not being identified.

A juvenile charged with adult crimes,who committed heinous acts. Either Earl Maucker doesn't understand the Sun-Sentinel's newsroom policy or is a very bad liar. Yesterday we had a Sun-Sentinel reporter who couldn't do first grade math. What a sad state of affairs at a South Florida newspaper.

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