Hell hath no fury like journalists protecting what they think is a righteous value, as we've seen with the furor over the publication of the photo of singer Rihanna's bruised and battered face.
From the Los Angeles Times newsroom to photo desks around the country, to Howard Kurtz's much-followed journalism chat, a consensus has emerged: Use of the photo first posted by the website TMZ amounted to a second victimization of the young star.
Kurtz called it "terrible." The photo editor of the San Jose Mercury News told me it was "prurient" and "tabloid journalism." A young reporter here at The Times snapped angrily at an editor that even by linking to www.tmz.com the paper had committed an act of dirty, back-door publishing.
I don't agree. Journalists have to make a lot of tough decisions that require balancing interests and values -- in this case, the goal of protecting crime victim Rihanna from further anguish versus the goal of exposing the true nature and severity of a public crime. (R&B star Chris Brown, 19, faces two felony counts in connection with the assault.)
It's been argued that by posting the puffy-faced, strikingly painful image, TMZ and others embarrassed and stigmatized the pop star. I don't underestimate how difficult this must be for a 21-year-old woman. But I think the media have paid almost no attention to another pressing threat: that domestic violence will be hidden away and suffered silently by victims, alone.
"Actually, it is not embarrassing for Rihanna. It is, however, shameful for the perpetrator," wrote Wendy Murphy, a onetime Massachusetts prosecutor, in a column supporting publication of the photo. "And it isn't a violation of anyone's 'privacy' because crime is not a 'private' matter."
Murphy, who has taught about sexual violence for 10 years at New England Law in Boston, realizes she's from a different camp than other activists on the issue.
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A public service
"In the 'movement,' they say to let the victim choose what's public," Murphy told me. "I try to turn this on its head and say, 'We don't let an eyewitness to a bank robbery or a witness in the Enron case say what the public should know.' It's a public concern what happens in these cases."
I look at the Rihanna photo in the same vein
TMZ specializes in a lot of silly, raunchy celebrity piffle not worth the digits it's recorded on. But the Rihanna photo offered a bracing dose of reality for young fans who should know that hitting, and the casual misogyny of some pop culture, can do real damage.
