In a terrible incident where a woman, 87, was knocked down and injured by two young children of the ages 4 and 5, they were put in the spotlight. After the elderly woman passed away three months later of unrelated causes, her estate sued the two children. With the case in motion, the two children were named in media outlets. The question is, were the outlet wrong in naming the children. There seems to be a two sided opinion on the topic. There is a responsibility that the media strives to fulfill when reporting the facts to the people, to not play a sort of favoritism and remain independent from the reported. However, at the same time the Times and CBSnews.com should take into consideration the people involved.
Two children, not even old enough to walk around without parents. The facts don’t have to be manipulated or altered to fit the needs of the children, but would it hurt if the identities weren’t made public. To think of the long term scarring this story will have on the young children as they grow old. Especially with the power of Google at the finger tips, its almost impossible not to find out such things as this case. The Times and CBSnews.com also got facts wrong as well, getting the age wrong of one of the children, not specifying that the death of the woman was unrelated and that she died months later, not weeks. If the news outlets were careless enough not to double check the sources then not naming young children should be the least of their worries.