The Tragedy of Kobe Bryant: What Journalists Learned About Minimizing Harm
While trying to report the death of a public hero, journalists fumble in minimizing harm.
One of 2020’s most unexpected events was the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26. On a Sunday afternoon, Bryant, along with his youngest daughter Gianna, was found dead after a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. The media scrambled to find information, and readers spent 24 hours trying to comprehend what actually happened to the star athlete. Messy reporting, poor writing, and the glory to be the first to report the story only furthered the public’s frustration and confusion. While racing to report a story, journalists can ignore a key ethical practice: minimizing harm.
Background
TMZ was the first to report the accident nearly an hour after the police received reports about the crash. In the report, TMZ reported that officials found Bryant, his daughter, and three other bodies at the crash site. Kobe Bryant immediately trended on Twitter, and ten minutes later, NBC News reports the incident and noted on Twitter that they were “working to determine and confirm who was on board the helicopter”. Matt Gunman of ABC News reported the story live, breaking into coverage of the NFL’s Pro Bowl, saying that “four of [Bryant’s] children are believed to be on the helicopter with him.”
Although this was proven false, the Internet spiraled. WPLG tweeted the same information Gunman mistakenly reported; only WPG cited no sources in the initial tweet. At this point, all kinds of rumors circulating around the crash — including one about Bryant’s close friend, Rick Fox, being on the aircraft and passing away with Bryant. Many on social media condemned TMZ and others for ‘mishandling’ this story.
It was not wrong for any news organization to take on this story. The gray area comes when journalists walk the line between breaking a story and breaching privacy. In a Northwest Public Broadcasting article, Matt Loveless notes a quote from journalist Scott Pelley, “If you’re first, no one will ever remember. If you’re wrong, no one will ever forget”. In chapter 1 of The New Ethics of Journalism, Clay Shirky notes that the Internet is changing how people interpret their news as “ordinary citizens are willing to regard any given statement as true” (Shirky, 2013, p. 9). In situations like Bryant’s death, fact-checking “doesn’t come easily to many journalists” (Myers, 2013, p. 64). According to Steve Myers in his essay in New Ethics, journalists often miss opportunities to dig deep when rushing to report a story, and they fail because they contain little checking of actual facts. The chaos in reporting the tragedy opened a can of worms in journalism ethics.
When breaking news, organizations must gauge how fast is too fast. In stories of tragedies, journalists are forced to choose between either the story of their career or respect the victim and their loved ones. The public reprimanded TMZ for reporting the story so quickly, and many assumed TMZ rushed to get the story out before anyone else. In a FOX 11 Los Angeles article, CEO Harvey Levin spoke to this saying, “I was personally on the phone with various people in Kobe’s camp and I got it confirmed by them and we posted the story.” However, the public was still upset that TMZ reported the story before the news could get back to Bryant’s family.
Minimizing harm
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics states that “ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues, and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect” (Society of Professional Journalists, 2014). Social media users and the police condemned TMZ for reporting the story so early. In a press conference, Los Angeles County Sherriff Alex Villanueva called out the site for revealing and misinforming the identities of the people who lost their lives saying, “It would be extremely disrespectful to understand one… perished and you learn about it from TMZ. That is just wholly inappropriate.” After TMZ released the story, reporters all around scrambled to get concrete details as the incident dominated the next 24 hours of the reporting cycle. Social media also went ablaze as everyone speculated, doubted, and mourned over the news. Most people called outlets to wait until there was concrete information. Jared Greenberg, a host for NBA TV, went to Twitter to confirm that Rick Fox was not on the helicopter after speaking with him and called outlets to “PLEASE STOP” spreading information unless they confirmed it.
Journalists must minimize harm when reporting stories. SPJ calls journalists to “balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort,” and “show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage.” Paul Fletcher of the Society’s Ethics Committee writes that when it comes to private individuals, “a journalist must weigh the consequences of publishing that information, all in a way that seeks to minimize harm.” Journalists have to realize that private people have more control over information about themselves than public figures do, and when publishing information that may affect them, journalists must consider the consequences of publishing personal information. Many felt that TMZ and other news outlets violated this code of ethics. Villanueva assumed TMZ went on to report the story without considering that Bryant’s loved ones may not have learned of the tragedy yet.
Levin assured that his website did the right thing for the family by confirming with Bryant’s representatives and sharing the information with the public. SPJ also calls on journalists to be accountable and transparent. When the public questions your reporting, journalists must “respond quickly” to those questions, and “acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently” while also explaining “corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.” In TMZ’s original article of Bryant, updates and additional information on the crash take up more of the page than the story itself. The article takes readers through a detailed timeline of how Bryant and his daughter ended up in the crash; from the events leading up to Bryant getting into the helicopter to the flight path to how the helicopter crashed in Calabasas.
The double-edged sword of reporting on public figures
Reporting on public figures and celebrities, however, is more complicated than one may think. When public figures have complicated legacies, the lines between ethical journalism and respecting privacy blur. In 2003, Bryant was charged with sexual assault involving a 19-year-old woman working in a hotel in Colorado. Bryant admitted being guilty of adultery and innocent of the rape charge. The case was dismissed in 2004, and he and the accuser settled a civil suit in 2005.
Only a couple of hours after news broke of Bryant’s death, Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez tweeted a link to an article from 2016 about the assault allegations against Bryant. Sonmez did not add any additional commentary on the story, just simply the headline, but she received backlash for the post, including threats. Sonmez expected the negative response to the post saying, “I can understand that it would be difficult for people to read that, but it’s also difficult, I imagine for all of the [sexual assault] survivors in the country to see these allegations essentially be erased, which is how I felt in those couple hours in the newsroom” (Zurcher, 2020). Sonmez later deleted the tweet that day. The next day, the newsroom announced that Sonmez had been placed on administrative leave while the paper reviewed her tweets regarding Bryant to see if they violated the Post’s social media policies.
Per the SPJ Code of Ethics, journalists must treat public figures as real people who deserve respect. However, Sonmez’s case proves that this code is a bit more complicated for people in the limelight. Here you have a legendary basketball player who meant a lot to Los Angeles, basketball fans, athletes, and his family and friends. On the same side of the coin, however, you also have someone who survived sexual assault and may have experienced extensive trauma for speaking up. For journalists, the situation becomes a “double-edged sword.” In an SPJ Ethics Case study, Laura Zurcher notes that ethical journalism “seeks to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number”. Therefore, Sonmez was wrong for posting the link on the day of Bryant’s death, not for posting the tweet in general.
The idea of the “double-edged sword” applies to Gayle King’s controversial interview with WBNA star and friend of Kobe Bryant, Lisa Leslie, a week after the tragedy. On Feb. 5, 2020, King interviewed Leslie on CBS This Morning about Bryant’s career and the legacy he leaves behind. King faced backlash for asking about his 2003 sexual assault case and was accused of tainting his legacy. Gayle asked, “It’s been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge which was dismissed in 2003. Is it complicated for you as a woman? As a WNBA player?” Leslie simply answered that she did not see him that way.
King chose to walk this line because she understood that victims of sexual need a voice, especially since her close friend, Oprah Winfrey, is a survivor as well. King was valid for asking this question and followed John Herritage’s three rules for setting agendas when asking questions during interviews.
- “First, questions set agendas by identifying a specific topical domain as the appropriate or relevant domain of response” (Herritage, 2002, p. 65).
- “Second, questions not only identify the topical domain to be dealt with in a response, but they also identify actions that the [interviewees] should perform in relation to the topical domain” (Herritage, 2002, p. 67).
- “Third, the agenda-setting function of questions involves decisions about how narrowly or broadly defined the [interviewee]’s response should be” (Herritage 2002, 69).
Despite the backlash, King was able to “achieve the greatest good” because she waited a week to bring Bryant’s case to light and acknowledge the survivors who may have been affected by this case or Bryant’s victim who survived the assault. It is worthy to note that the interviewed days before his funeral could have been a reason for King to wait or for CBS to air the interview after the service and harmed those still emotionally raw.
Martin Conboy notes that in celebrity journalism, “lives are often represented as two-dimensional roller coaster rides between elation and depression, a dynamic which certainly fits neatly with the overall binary nature of popular tabloid news structures” (Conboy, 2013, p. 197). The celebrity connection humanizes the story in a way in which readers can grasp, but “the very tabloid techniques and expressions risk trivializing the problem” (Conboy, 2013, p. 197). Many felt that King was trying to trivialize Kobe Bryant’s legacy by mentioning his rape case. Many people in the Black community, specifically, felt Gayle was trying to tarnish someone who made huge contributions for Black people in Los Angeles, which could lead to a distrust in her and other reports she may do surrounding other prominent Black figures.
For TMZ, they did not necessarily have to deal with blurred lines when reporting the crash. However, they did need to consider the greatest good for the greatest amount of people, which they did. They reported a story — that they confirmed — so that the public can learn about the death of a hero for many. However, more harm was caused due to messy reporting, a lack of information, and malpractice in fact-checking. TMZ caused a spiral of chaos, reporting the story without the necessary details that would give the public some relief in Bryant’s death.
Work Cited
Conboy, M. (2014). Celebrity journalism — An oxymoron? Forms and functions of a genre. Journalism, 15(2), 171–185.
Heritage, J. (2002). Designing questions and setting agendas in the news interview. Studies in language and social interaction, 57–90.
Mcbride K., & Rosenstiel T. (2013). The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century.
SPJ Code of Ethics. (2014, September 6). Retrieved from www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp