The tense hostage situation involving Richard Shenkman and his ex-wife in South Windsor on Tuesday was a tricky one for the news media.
As one Laurel reader points out, “The Day has posted this remarkable video of their reporter fielding calls from the hostage taker in South Windsor. She should be getting kudos for having the presence of mind to actually remain calm and conduct an interview under the circumstances.” The video is pretty amazing – hats off to reporter Karen Florin.
WTNH News Director Kirk Varner writes a thoughtful blog entry about the dilemma news organizations faced.
The Hartford Courant’s decision not to remove coverage of the stand-off from its web site, despite Shenkman’s threats of further violence, is defended in the story that ran in the paper. However, the newspaper’s actions provoked this critical letter from Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez and Hartford Police Chief Darryl Roberts.
