Pulling Back on Mugshots
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A number of Scripps stations have been making a pledge to pull back on using mugshots in their newscast and in online stories.
You can now add Scripps owned KSHB in Kansas City to the list.
The station posted on their website that, “Innocent until proven guilty is a bedrock of the U.S. legal system. It also is becoming the bedrock of our policy in using police mugshots in news coverage.
With a few exceptions, 41 Action News is committed to reducing — and, in some cases, eliminating — the practice of using police-provided booking photos for criminal subjects.”
KHSB goes on to say, “An arrest is not a criminal conviction and should not be grounds for connecting a person’s image to an alleged act, a decision that can follow that person long after any debt owed society has been paid, particularly in the digital age.”
But, they do say there will be exceptions, “That does not mean there are not times when a person’s mugshot is newsworthy and essential to our journalist’s mission. We will continue to use mugshots when police are engaged in an active manhunt or searching for additional potential victims — circumstances where the public must see the image to avoid potential danger or speak up as a victim. Mugshots also may be used in certain circumstances when a crime is sufficiently newsworthy or the person is a well-known public figure.”
