A tough call by Ch. 8

The tragic story of Harry Lee Coe raises an ethical question: When should journalists contact law enforcement?

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By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 5, 2000

Steve Andrews wants people to know one thing: He's not emotionally distraught.

He has had good reason. Andrews, the lead reporter in WFLA-Ch. 8's Target 8 investigative unit, broke the story of Hillsborough State Attorney Harry Lee Coe. Coe had borrowed thousands of dollars from employees in his office and then attempted to cover up visits to hundreds of gambling sites over the Internet via an office computer.

In April, Andrews notified the Florida Department of Law Enforcement when he suspected the state attorney altered a document showing which Web sites he had visited. In July, when Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a full investigation and Coe killed himself, it was Andrews who found the body.

But as he sat in a comfortable office at WFLA's new headquarters last week, the veteran reporter seemed the picture of composure.

"While it was a sad turn of events, I wasn't devastated," he says of finding Coe's body slumped beneath an overpass of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, while trying to track down the state attorney for a response to Bush's decision. "I don't mean to sound cold, but the first (dead) body I ever saw left more of an impression."

Andrews' call to the FDLE had prompted the agency to investigate Coe's gambling activities and debts. So, he said, "I knew there was a portion of the (TV) audience that would blame me."

But there is another concern: that Andrews' call to the FDLE crossed a thin line between reporting the news and influencing it.

It's a view shared by some journalism experts, who say such actions turn journalists into agents of the police.

"There's a danger there, and a not inconsequential one, that the public begins to view reporters as an arm of law enforcement," said Carl Gottlieb, deputy director of the Washington D.C.-based Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"In a business where perception is reality, for the public to perceive that a news outlet is either an arm of or works hand-in-hand with the police is a little troubling," said the former TV news executive with 20 years' experience in the business. "It's dangerous for all of us."

For the public, it might seem a simple issue. If a citizen believes a crime has been committed -- particularly by the county's most powerful law enforcement officer -- isn't it his duty to tell police?

But journalists aren't ordinary citizens. Their first allegiance should be to reporting the news, not getting involved with it.

That's a view echoed by Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies (the Poynter Institute owns the Times Publishing Co., which publishes the St. Petersburg Times).

For Steele, independence from any perception of collaboration with government and police supersedes such citizen duties, except in cases where there's imminent danger.

"There's lots of times in our reporting where we believe someone has broken the law ... (and) we don't go running to the police," he said. "What I don't understand is, why didn't WFLA just interview people at the FDLE and put it in their story?"

Andrews defends the decision to call the FDLE, pushed by vice president of news Dan Bradley, saying the station had reached an impasse in their reporting and was afraid Coe would destroy evidence of his Internet gambling before WFLA could confirm enough details to air a story.

Armed with Coe's own user name and password for a gambling site he visited, Andrews said he called FDLE officials in April and asked them to investigate whether Coe was gambling over the Internet and borrowing heavily from employees to cover losses.

FDLE officials say they had sporadic contact with Andrews after that first conversation and never promised they would give him advance notice of any findings or official action. (Last week, the agency issued a report confirming Andrews' stories.)

Andrews never revealed his sources, which he said were "deep inside (Coe's) office."

Charles Guthrie, supervisor of the FDLE's white collar crimes division, said he can't remember the last time a reporter called specifically to request an investigation.

"(We kept) a very arm's-length relationship ... I never even met the guy until (last week)," Guthrie said. "It was a call out of the blue."

It would be weeks later, on July 10, that Andrews would break his first story: that Coe borrowed $12,000 from two employees in his office. On July 12, Andrews reported their contact with the FDLE and Bush's order to begin the investigation, showing footage of Coe denying the allegations about betting via the Internet.

The next day, while waiting in front of Coe's apartment, Andrews and photographer Gordon Dempsey noticed a slumped figure nearby. After seeing blood on the figure's shirt, they looked closer and discovered who it was.

"I thought, "Why did it have to be me (who found him)?"' Andrews said. He agreed to work off-camera in reporting on Coe's death that week once Bradley and other WFLA executives concluded "we didn't want to be perceived as kicking a dead man."

But negative calls and e-mail poured into the station from viewers who blamed the media in general, and WFLA specifically, for hounding Coe to his death. One person even threatened to show up at Andrews' home.

"Even now, people ask "How do you feel?' ... and I'm tired," said Andrews, 47, an employee at WFLA for 15 years. "I've worked a lot of hours and taken a lot of heat."

This wasn't the first time Andrews had given a heads up to law enforcement while investigating allegations of criminal activity.

In 1987, Andrews says he contacted the Hillsborough State Attorney's office about customers who said they were cheated at the Tampa Boat Mart. Three years later, he contacted the Department of Health and Human Services about a possible scheme to defraud senior citizens regarding their health coverage.

"We have every bit as much responsibility to report wrongdoing as the next person," said Bradley, WFLA's vice president of news. "If we have knowledge that a crime is taking place, we should report it. And we can do that several ways ... either through our reporting or by calling (law enforcement) directly."

For Gary Hill, head of the investigative team at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis and co-chair of the Society of Professional Journalists' ethics committee, the key is independence. Was WFLA's reporting independent from the law enforcement investigation?

"You don't want to go to a (police) station and say, "Here's our files ... let us know when you do a bust,' " Hill said. "(But) it sounds like (WFLA) did a real public service in reporting this."

Gottlieb, at the Project for Excellence in Journalism, disagrees, saying such practices could lead potential sources to conclude, "if what I'm going to tell you will land on the desk of law enforcement, maybe I won't tell you anything."

At least, Andrews and WFLA are up-front about their contacts with law enforcement. But, hard as it is to argue the unmasking of Coe's misdeeds, I can't help thinking that too much cooperation with police leads journalists to become part of the story they're covering.

But I -- and others who've criticized WFLA's call to FDLE -- believe the station should not be blamed for Coe's suicide.

"We want reporters to be dogged, and sometimes the outcome is going to be unfortunate," Gottlieb said. "There are times the outcome is tough to foresee and even tougher to take. But that's our job."

Although Andrews and Bradley avoid using the word "vindication," they admit it was a high point when the FDLE later confirmed their stories.

"This is why I got into news," Andrews said. "We had information that a public official was breaking the law and we exposed it. That's what journalism is all about."

-- To reach Eric Deggans call (727) 893-8521 or e-mail deggans@sptimes.com.

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