Case Study Richard Jewell and the Olympic Bombing

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Case Study Richard Jewell and the Olympic Bombing

• Adapted from a study by Ron Ostrow for the
  Project for Excellence in Journalism
• http//www.journalism.org/node/1791

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Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta
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27-28 July 1996

• 12.58 a.m Anonymous call to police saying
  there is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30
  minutes.
• Richard Jewell, a 33 year old security guard at
  the tower notices a backpack lying on the ground,
  alerts others and helps evacuate people
• 1.20 a.m Pipe bomb explodes near a light tower.
  Two people die, 112 injured
• Jewell is hailed as a hero for noticing the bomb
  and helping to save lives. He is interviewed in
  all the major media.

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July 28-29

• In the afternoon, the FBI receives information
  about Jewell
• -a former boss rings the FBI and says Jewell was
  not very reliable and might have been involved
• -he had been arrested in 1990 for impersonating a
  policeman
• -he had been fired from two other police jobs
• -FBI experts believed he fit the psychological
  profile of a person who might create such an
  incident in order to emerge a hero
• -By the end of July 29, Jewell had emerged as the
  principal, though not only suspect

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(No Transcript)
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At the Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 29

• Kathy Scruggs, an experienced police reporter, is
  told by a source in the Atlanta police
  department that investigators are looking at
  Jewell as a suspect
• Source tells her she cannot use the story, as it
  might endanger the investigation.
• Scruggs agrees, but says that if she can get the
  same story from other sources, she will use it.

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At the AJC office

• Scruggs tells her editor I have good news and
  bad news. I know who they are looking at, but we
  cant use it.
• Her editor agrees, and said she would have to
  confirm the story through other sources

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July 30

• Scruggs is told by another source in the Atlanta
  police department that investigators were looking
  at Jewell- says everybody in the department
  knows about it
• Scruggs told her editors that since she had other
  sources saying that Jewell was a suspect, they
  should report it.
• Another reporter, Ron Martz, was told by his
  federal law enforcement sources that the story
  was on the right track

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• The newspaper also sent an intern to Jewells
  apartment complex there she saw men in plain
  clothes watching the apartment with binoculars.
• The intern knocked at Jewells door, but he would
  not open

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The view from the newsroom

• This was a big story, and the Atlanta Journal
  Constitution reporters appeared to have a scoop
  on who might have done it
• With the eyes of the world on Atlanta, every
  major news organization in the world was
  reporting on the story

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What information did the reporters have?

• Four different sources had indicated that Jewell
  was a suspect
• Jewell had a history of trouble in other places
  he had worked at-reporters were sent to check out
  his past
• Sources had said he fit the profile of a lone
  bomber
• His apartment was under surveillance, and he had
  refused to talk to reporters

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Some issues that the editors thought about.

• No one was willing to go on record saying that
  Jewell was a suspect
• Were the law enforcement agencies using the press
  to sweat out a suspect?
• But Scruggs and Martz were both experienced, and
  trusted the sources who were giving them
  information.

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An additional step that the managing editor took

• He got a reporter to read the story draft out to
  a federal law enforcement source and asked
  whether there was anything inaccurate in the
  story. The source commented that the headline was
  a bit strong, but that there was nothing
  inaccurate in the story.
• The source was also asked whether publishing the
  story would hinder investigation, and replied
  that it would not

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• The newspaper decided to run the story as the
  lead on the afternoon of July 30
• Television stations quickly followed it up, and
  soon everyone knew that Richard Jewell was the
  prime suspect in this case.
• TV crews and reporters were parked outside his
  apartment, and the story was on every national
  news outlet.

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Other big news organizations ran their own stories

• CNN ran the story based on their own sources. My
  source told me, this is the guy,and Ive never
  known my source to be wrong
• NBCs Tom Brokaw They probably have enough to
  arrest him right now, probably enough to
  prosecute him.but there are still some holes in
  the case.

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July 31-Day 2

• Jewell is questioned by the FBI for two hours and
  released, without being arrested or charged.
• Reporters get his response for the first time,
  and he flatly denies planting the bomb
• Media report this, but the main focus of most
  stories continues to be that he was the main
  suspect, given his character and earlier
  background.

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Some media comments

• Talk show host Michael Lebron on WABC AM radio,
  New York described Jewell as a typical rent a
  cop freako security guard loser who always wanted
  to be somebody and who drives around in a used
  police cara little loser

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August 10

• Evidence emerges that Jewell could not have made
  the 911 phone call at the time the call was
  made, he was talking to security guards.
• FBI agents apparently knew about this.
• Jewell had still not been publicly identified as
  a suspect.

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August 23

• An ABC news poll showed that the majority of
  Americans though that Jewell had been treated
  unfairly by the media.

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October 26

• US prosecutors publicly clear Jewell of any
  involvement in the bomb case, saying he is not
  a target of ..the investigation

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What Jewell said

• "I am not the Olympic Park bomber. I am a man who
  has lived 88 days afraid of being arrested for a
  crime I did not commit.
• In its rush for the headline that the hero was
  the bomber, the media cared nothing for my
  feelings as a human being

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• Your cameras trained on my mother and me. Your
  cameras and the FBI followed my every move. I
  felt like a hunted animal, followed constantly,
  waiting to be killed. The media said I fit the
  profile of a lone bomber. That was a lie

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Jewell sued a number of news outlets for libel

• He won undisclosed amounts from both CNN and NBC
  news and the New York Post and ABC News
• Jewell had a suit pending against the Atlanta
  Journal Constitution

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The AJC defends its reporting

• Kathy Scruggs We have not done anything wrong,
  as everything we wrote has been accurate
• We didnt say he was guilty.
• They had four sources for their story
• Intern saw police officers watching Jewells
  apartment
• Jewell was in the public eye people had a right
  to know if he was dangerous

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Questions that reporters did not focus enough on

• What was the FBI evidence based on?
• Why did no one from the police or FBI go on the
  record?
• Why had Jewell not been arrested?

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Some issues

• Is accuracy truth? If not how much verification
  is required before publication?
• Is it right to name some one just on suspicion,
  or should you wait till they are formally
  charged?
• How do you balance the public right to know, with
  the presumption of innocence? (the principle that
  a person is innocent until proven guilty)

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Epilogue

• October 14 1998, Eric Rudolph, a man who had
  previously been charged with bombing an abortion
  clinic in Alabama, and was also accused of
  bombing a gay bar in Atlanta, was charged with
  the bombing.

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Kathy Scruggs

• In September 2001, Kathy Scruggs, aged 42, was
  found dead in her apartment near Atlanta. She had
  been in poor health for the past year, and
  apparently under a great deal of stress because
  of the libel case against her.
• Richard Jewell had filed the libel case demanding
  to know the police sources who had leaked his
  name. Scruggs refused to reveal them.

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August 30, 2007, The New York Times Reports
Richard Jewell, 44, Hero of Atlanta Attack, Dies
                                               
                                                  
                                                  
                
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I think everybody in journalism ought to be
ashamed of themselves today.Not at the very
beginning but after that period of time when
they went with a story without any additional
fresh information. They were hyping news. They
were trying to get little bits of information
and blowing it into a sensation, and I think
that everybody has to sympathize with Mr. Jewell
and his mother. Comment by veteran journalist
Marvin Kalb
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Words of wisdom

• We have to draw a distinction between the right
  to do something and the right thing to
  do.--Jonathan Alter, columnist and senior editor
  at Newsweek.

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Summing up

• The importance of not only the truth, but the
  facts behind the truth
• Balancing right to know with presumption of
  innocence.
• Even if countless sources tell you something is
  true, it is not necessarily so
• The difficulties of working under competitive
  pressures