Tough call on airing Glenn 911 tape
Just before our early newscasts Monday afternoon we received a copy of Hope Glenn's desperate call to a 911 dispatcher. Her son, Lukus, was drunk, breaking windows and threatening to kill himself. I listened to the entire 10 minute call. It was hard to listen to it. Real hard.
We had to make a decision about how much of the call we would use on air and on kgw.com. When we face these journalistic questions, I often gather around several members of the editorial staff to discuss the issue and get different points of view. This time four or five of us listened to the call again, taking notes on the sections we knew we would include and putting question marks by the sections we wondered whether we should use.
The questionable section of the tape basically covered the last three minutes of the call. It was clear at that point that the situation at the Glenn house was getting worse. The anguish in Hope Glenn's voice was heartbreaking. Then you heard the shots, presumably first the bean bag shots and then the real bullets.
We decided to use excerpts from the early and middle part of the call which set up the events that unfolded that night. We wouldn't use the last few minutes when Hope Glenn's anguish reached a fever pitch and when you heard the bullets flying. Even a disclaimer that "the story contained graphic material" would not prepare the viewer at home for what they would hear. This section of the call could add little insight into what happened that night at the Glenn's Washington County home. We already knew how the confrontation ended. Using that part of the call would take advantage of a grieving mother who already regretted calling 911.
With stories like this, it is the media's job to ask the tough questions, to find out exactly what happened and why. It is not our job to shock and awe. That is how and why we decided to use most, but not all, of Hope Glenn's desperate call to the Washington County 911 Center.
- Rod Gramer, KGW Executive News Director
