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40 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1033 (1999-2000)
The News Media and the Good Samaritan Statute Controversy: Covering the Ethics of Others

handle is hein.journals/saclr40 and id is 1057 raw text is: THE NEWS MEDIA AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN STATUTE CONTROVERSY: COVERING THE ETHICS OF OTHERS Edmund B. Lambeth* I. INTRODUCTION Whether and how to regulate the behavior of Bad or Good Samaritans by statute are questions far more complex than many of us may suppose at first glance. Although these questions may seem straightforward, they tap the reserves of any country's moral, legal, and civic imagination. This es- say's topic-how deeply journalists can or should be expected to report Good or Bad Samaritan issues-is almost as chal- lenging. To address these questions is to simultaneously con- front the current public cynicism toward many of the social practices of our democracy, including journalism. The purpose of this essay is to assess the performance of the printed press in covering the public policy issues sur- rounding the rape and strangulation murder of seven-year- old Sherrice Iverson in the arcade bathroom of a casino in Primm, Nevada, forty-three miles south of Las Vegas, on May 25, 1997. The press coverage included pre-trial events that led to the confession and sentencing of her killer, Jeremy Strohmeyer, an upper-middle-class high school honors stu- dent. Central to this essay is the media-related public reac- tion to the failure of Strohmeyer's sometime friend, David T. Cash, Jr., to prevent or report the crime, or to seek assistance * Professor of Journalism, University of Missouri. Ph.D., American Uni- versity; M.S., Northwestern University; B.S., Northwestern University. Profes- sor Lambeth, a former president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the originator of the National Workshop on the Teaching of Ethics in Journalism, the founding director of the Washington Re- porting Program of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and the or- ganizer and first chair of the Civic Journalism Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. 1033

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