*** THE SHAME OF PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — THE NEWS & MESSENGER ***

The media has sunk to a new all-time low and it comes courtesy of Prince William County’s very own News & Messenger newspaper.

Yesterday, a terrible tragedy occured when a sanitation worker was killed on the job in Woodbridge.  The man leaves behind a wife and their three young children.  But this sad event was compounded by the editors of the News & Messenger who not only saw it fit to send a photographer to the scene, but to have that photographer take pictures of the deceased as he lay on the road receiving last rites from a priest and then actually run the photo of that on their front page today taking up much of the space above the fold.

The article (beware - graphic photo is included with their web version of the story, too) itself depicted what a tragic event this was, but including the photo was wholey unnecessary.  It reeks of media sensationalism the kind that Don Henley decried in his anti-media song “Dirty Laundry.”

So, News & Messenger, are you proud of your work here?  Are you happy that you have provided his young children with the last image that they will ever have of their father, laying lifeless on the road?  Do you even realize that your newspaper is provided to schools for students to read and look at?  Do you even think at all before you run your stories and select which photos to include?  I think that the answer is clear.

UPDATE:  Scott White over at Scott’s Morning Brew has a post up on this as well, but from the perspective of a law enforcement official. Here’s just a snippet:

In all my years as a forensics technician (and forensic photographer I might add), I have had many dealings with the media. NEVER has anyone at one of my scenes, ever published such a photograph.

Be sure to read his entire take on this.

UPDATE 2:  Greg L. over at BVBL has awarded the News & Messenger his Scrooge of the Year Award for publishing this photo and says:

To put this on the front page is completely beyond the pale.  One just has to wonder what in the heck was going thorough these folks minds when they decided that this could somehow be a good idea.  Would editor Susan Svhilik have published a photo on the front page of one of her dead family members, even outside of the Christmas season?  Yeah, I thought so.

One commenter on his site replied:

When my mother died, the Journal Messenger [Ed note: this was the previous name of this paper] placed a picture of the crashed plane on the entire “above the fold” section. Imagine being 14 and walking onto your front porch to pick up the newspaper and seeing the crashed plane in which your mother died. It was so horrible that I have virtually no memories of almost 1 1/2 years of my life after seeing that photo.

Needless to say, I have detested that paper ever since and have never purchased that rag. The Journal Messenger has no consideration for the families of victims – they sicken me.

And back here on Virtucon in the comments below, Scott Hirons notes yet another instance where this particular “newspaper” has crossed over to behaving like Merchants of Death:

As a bit of background this isn’t the first time this paper has done something like this. When I was in high school and the paper was a still an afternoon paper a classmate was killed in a car accident in the morning. The paper ran the story and picture of our classmate’s body in the wrecked car. Most of his fellow students hadn’t heard about the accident or of course his death until they saw the afternoon paper greeted by the picture.

Back then students and friends of our dead classmate organized, sent letters to the paper and protested in front of their building. I think they wrote an apology at some point that week. A lot of parents supported the efforts and canceled their subscriptions.

I’ve already heard of new efforts similar to this one. Hey editors, way to go to kill yet another local newspaper.  Just don’t expect a government bailout for your sorry selves.