August 3, 2013
Notes

Watertown Redux? Cops, not Feds, Raid House in New York Somewhere

We have an editorial and photo editing question for you.  Being that the Atlantic Wire is the bomb, and last Thursday a story about the feds raiding a house in Suffolk County, New York over a Google search went completely viral, we were wondering what you thought of this photo  and layout.

With surveillance currently occupying the political, cultural and media mind, the webs lit up last week with the story of a couple invaded by either the FBI or Homeland Security after an alleged Google search for “pressure cooker” and “backpack.” The Atlantic Wire subsequently updated their story, changed the headline (to indicate “cops” rather than “feds”) and clarified the mystery but not till more facts were known. You can read the post here. (The real warning out of this, by the way? Be careful doing Google searches at work or getting too interested in cooking quinoa.)

So, our question is: what do you think of Atlantic taking a breaking and fragmentary story, set in NY and involving a completely innocent couple, and illustrating it with a shot from the bomber manhunt in Watertown? (Just to note, there is a line in the middle of the post in parentheses indicating the photo is from Watertown, and a photo note at the bottom of the post indicating same — the double citation indicating, we imagine, recognition of the potential apprehension arising from the choice/impact of the captionless pic.)

What do you think about running this pic from the standpoint of accuracy and editorial responsibility, as well as the perspective of  this family in Watertown?

(photo: AP)

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Michael Shaw
See other posts by Michael here.

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