Benjamin Klein: Making an assumption of guilt with some front page articles

The court has accused you of sexual assault. The university has removed you from campus housing. You must confront a life-altering legal battle. Social displacement, public humiliation and estrangement are inevitable consequences.

At the age of 20, neither experience nor intuition will act as a savior.

Now multiply this problem by 14,000 (the number of copies The Daily Pennsylvanian prints each day). A college newspaper, guaranteed the right and the privilege of free expression, has exercised the First Amendment and displayed your photograph prominently on the front page of the newspaper. The next day, you are featured again on the front page of the publication. Then the newspaper features your name and photograph in a headline article on their Web site. Now multiply the problem by several thousand (the average number of online readers per day).

Congratulations, you have been labeled a criminal.

On Oct. 2 and 3, the DP printed the name and photograph of Justin Wynter, the undergraduate student accused in the recent Harnwell assault, on the cover of the newspaper, revealing his identity to the University community in a blatant and tactless manner. From Oct. 2-5, Wynter was featured on the front page of www.dailypennsylvanian.com, the Web page for the independent, student-run newspaper.

Because of the editorial decision of the DP, Wynter must face irreversible and potentially unwarranted consequences: a tarnished reputation, public embarrassment and alienation. The premature decision to publish the identity of Wynter and the partial reporting of the journalists has unjustly misled the campus community to believe that Justin is "guilty until proven innocent." The primary article, titled "Wharton sophomore charged in dorm assault," incriminates Wynter without imparting a fraction of innocence.

The second article, printed on Oct. 3, injudiciously casts Wynter into the limelight, publishing a mug shot of Wynter on the front cover of the newspaper -- audacious. The bulk of the 16-paragraph article, titled "Harnwell residents exercise caution," addresses the security concerns of residents in the high rise. Only one paragraph is devoted to Wynter. Why, then, did the DP use Wynter's photograph to represent an unrelated story? Why should one paragraph take precedence over the bulk of the article?

The life of a promising young adult has been seriously and adversely affected by the editorial decision of the DP. David Wallman, responding online to the Oct. 3 article, clearly articulated the issue: "This is on par for the course of American journalism, which routinely dispatches people's lives and reputations by simplistic and intrusive stories which invite people to presume guilt and assume the worst. Worse still, it sanctimoniously wraps itself in a cloak of First Amendment higher purpose, thereby exempting itself from showing a modicum of tact or discretion in what is certainly a tremendous ordeal for the participants."

The First Amendment is a privilege, one that must be exercised with care and prudence. As exemplified by the Wynter case, the misuse of this constitutional right can perpetuate the all-too-familiar guilty until proven innocent mentality; thus, news organizations must exercise their power in a more sensitive and judicious manner, especially when that newspaper caters to a concentrated, academic community of which Wynter is a part.

One important fact not clearly distinguished by the DP is that Justin Wynter has not been convicted of a crime. Wynter was arrested and charged on the basis of probable cause, but has yet to be convicted or acquitted. It is a mistake to equate accusation with guilt.

My plea to you, the reader, is to abandon the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality that is perpetuated by the media. Do not draw conclusions before all the facts are revealed. Instead, demand that the media accurately and impartially report the facts from both sides.

In the future, I urge the DP to re-evaluate its current disclosure policy. The identity of the accused should be handled in a more tactful and discretionary manner until that individual is proven innocent or guilty. The newspaper must realize that although it holds the trump card of the First Amendment, its ability to use the card does not always justify the decision to do so.

Benjamin Klein is a College sophomore from Pittsburgh, Pa.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.