Just a few short weeks ago, a young lady was killed during the
riots that followed the Boston Red Sox win over the New York
Yankees in the American League playoffs that put the team in the
World Series.
Just a few short weeks ago, a young lady was killed during the riots that followed the Boston Red Sox win over the New York Yankees in the American League playoffs that put the team in the World Series. The police shot and killed the woman in the celebrating crowd, in an attempt to scatter the crowds that had become unruly. The accident, her death, hit me hard.
As a journalism student, it is my job to take a step back from the events around me, collect the facts necessary to get the whole the story, and present it in a tasteful and effective manner to the public. After the violent rioting resulted in the death of Victoria Snelgrove, I followed my journalism intuition and took a step back in order to understand how this happened.
The story starts long before there was rioting in the streets. It starts with being in Boston and being a Red Sox fan. I was never a sports fan till I moved here, but the contagion for baseball is palpable. You simply cannot avoid the excitement and become wrapped up in the fever. Why the fans become dangerous and destructive following the win of one of their beloved teams, I cannot explain. And this year the fans were at an even greater fever pitch.
With each playoff win over the rivals Yankees, came more and more acts of public rioting and vandalism. News coverage showed crazed fans pouring out of bars and apartment buildings, screaming and massing to Kenmore Square, a major area near Fenway Park and the Boston University Campus. The senseless destruction was frightening. But even knowing the situation, people were drawn to become part of the history-making event with many of my friends going out into the night to join the hordes. Anticipating the dangerous behavior of the sport’s loving Bostonians, I chose to stay safe in my apartment watching the action on television.
News coverage continued long after midnight with images of massing fans as screaming mobs, smashing property and setting fires. The night simply became a reason to act crazy.
The Boston Police Department, anticipating the rioting, increased its force by nearly 70 percent in the Northeastern University (my university’s) vicinity; and was still no match for the crowds. The riot police used new weapons designed for the Democratic National Convention in an attempt to keep the rioters under control. The result, though unintentional, was the death of a young woman by the hand of a man who was there to protect her.
But the story does not end there.
How the local newspapers covered the event would be the next indignity and tragedy for Victoria Snelgrove. Photographs of her body lying motionless on the sidewalk with friends watching helplessly appeared on the front page of the Boston Herald with the headline, “The Triumph, The Tragedy.” Not the type of headline one would expect for an article meant to inform readers of the severity of the rioting situation of college students in city streets.
The photo covered the entire front page of the newspaper showing the face of the victim covered in blood, and no one around to help her. Inside, the newspaper contained an even more graphic photo of the injuries caused by the hard-rubber bullet to her head. Shocked and offended readers protested the publication of such a photo and a few days later, The Herald published an apology. All of this was in stark contrast to Boston’s other major paper, the Globe that chose to report the story accompanied by Victoria’s beautiful high school graduation picture.
After The Herald’s apology, I wondered how a photo containing the image of a student dying on the sidewalk have passed by the editors without someone in the busy newsroom taking a moment to consider the outcome?
The Herald claims the photo was published to show the brutality of the police and the outcome of the violent Red Sox rioters. And on the other hand, I think of the headline, and the photos chosen and wonder how those could have been changed to offend less people but convey the same message. Perhaps a front page photo of a wider shot of the crowd so the identities of those involved cannot be made out so easily along with a headline addressing the issue more closely, such as, “Police Action Against Rioting Fans: Student Perishes.” These ideas began running through my head after this matter was mentioned in my Visual Journalism class. Thought must be given to the impact and necessity of the information provided in each and every article presented to the public, including photographs.
I have heard it said that while the job of a journalist is to report the news as honestly and in as unbiased a manner as possible; the business of reporting the news is to sell newspapers. But as a student of news, I have learned that freedom of speech is one of our nation’s strongest instruments of democracy and that while it goes hand-in-hand with the power of the pen, in the wrong hands it can be a dangerous, and offending, tool.
Lacey Green is a third-year (of five) student at Northeastern University in Boston. Readers may contact her at La********@*ol.com
