SPECIAL REPORT: Avoiding JonBenet Pitfalls -- Advice from A Reporter Who Has Been There

By: Jim Moscou And, so, an arrest has been made. It?s Thursday, 10 a.m. August 17, 2006, and Boulder, a city dubiously known for nearly 10 years as the ?Perfect Town? for the ?Perfect Murder,? is waking up to an old story.

Bumping Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Castro from the lede, the JonBenet Ramsey murder mystery has once again demonstrated its extraordinary headline potency following the arrest of a suspect in this gruesome and infamous murder. It is a resurrection, by all accounts, that has sent the national media scrambling back to this idyllic Rocky Mountain city.

By Wednesday night, reporters across the country once assigned this dormant beat were digging into stored-away boxes, blowing the dust off of old Ramsey notebooks and files, and making reservations at the city?s swanky downtown hotels.

By Thursday morning, along the tranquil and well-traveled Boulder Creek path, a hundred-plus journalists, from the Denver Post to the Washington Post, were sitting under a deep-blue Rocky Mountain summer sky, staring at a sun-beaten podium with local mountain bikers and moms-and-their-strollers caught up in the pending press conference.

John Mark Karr, a school teacher wanted on child pornography charges and tracked down to arguably the most popular pedophile country in the world, was arrested (not charged, mind you) for JonBenet?s murder, said Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy. But she went on to warn, in an eerie evocation, eyeballing the crowd, ?We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey. Do not jump to judgment. Do not speculate? that Karr is the killer.

With that and no new information for the eager gathering, she ?no-commented? nearly every follow-up question. By the end of the day, serious questions on whether Karr is really the right guy permeated papers ? some of which had earlier dubbed him the killer -- and the airwaves. Speculation ran rapid. Heads started to shake. And, here we all were, once again, on the JonBenet beat, left with little information, a belittling reminder from Boulder officials, and more fuel for the fire in one the most confounding mysteries of our time.

In short, back at square one. As a longtime Boulder resident and journalist on this story, and hoping that it ends with justice for this little girl -- what a long, strange trip it has been.

For local residents to the veteran Ramsey reporters gathered creekside, the return of this saga was like a collective bad flashback to the 1990s. The frenzy that descended on this town was, to sum in local university lingo, mind-blowing.

But we?re all a little bit older now, hopefully a little more wiser, and those crazy days (or years actually) are in the past. And with time and maturity, I?d like to think, comes certain irrefutable lessons that may be worth recalling as the latest JonBenet chapter unfolds. Here are just three:

1.) Remember: Our Journalism Can Devastate a Life

Through the late 1990s, before the story started to fade, local reporters took to calling the JonBenet story the ?Ramsey Virus? ? touch it, and you?re flirting with disaster.

No one was immune, and, like a tsunami, you can?t control being caught. Neighbors, police, reporters themselves ? there is frankly not enough time or space to list the victims and how their lives forever changed.

The truth is, any journalist who has spent any time reporting the JonBenet murder would eventually stumble upon and recognize the virus. That?s why many left the beat, even the profession, hoping to keep some sense of self intact. For many caught up in the reporting, well, their careers, hearts, and/or bank accounts, families were simply left busted, tragic endings scattered on the outskirts of this story, few remembering their names or faces.

Of course, should the latest arrest ring true, there is one victimized family we know will benefit: the Ramseys themselves.

2.) Don?t Let the Tail Wag the Dog

This murder has always been a story driven by the fringes ? from Santa Claus suspects to online JonBenet groupies endlessly pontificating whodunit theories, to this day. But none arguably had a greater impact than the fringes of journalism, also known as the supermarket tabloids.

When the leads dried up soon after the murder, leaving a wake of extremely frustrated press, and a police chief waving the U.S Constitution in reporters? faces, the mainstream press turned to its dirty cousin for help. Any journalist who ignored them "did so [to] their own detriment,? Charlie Brennan of the Rocky Mountain News told me and E&P back in 1999.

I personally witnessed, or heard tape recordings of, local editors and national producers for morning talk shows aiming to court and befriend these self-described ?media Mafioso.? In fact, a six-month investigation by this magazine led to the indictment of one of The Globe?s JonBenet reporters, Craig Lewis, for extortion and bribery. Lewis thought sending a letter to one of the lead detectives on the case, Steve Thomas, threatening to publish an article that falsely claimed Thomas?s mother committed suicide, unless Thomas gave up some dirt on the case, was a good idea. (Prosecutors didn?t think so.)

Bottom line: The mainstream press thrived on these leads, empowered the tabloids, and let questionable characters drive journalism ethics and overarching story tone. It was, to be sure, disappointing to watch.

3.) All Journalism Counts

Then there is the lesson of Michael Tracey, the academic, whose email exchanges with creepy Karr helped lead to his arrest.

A refresher: Tracey is a British-born Colorado U journalism professor who made a series of British-style (read: very opinionated, slanted and a bit tough to digest) documentaries slamming the American media?s indictment of the Ramseys. While he was one of the first to question the media groupthink that the parents were guilty, the work was largely dismissed, including by me.

While the Tracey link is still playing out, it seems on this day that his documentaries at least smoked out a fugitive from justice (for other crimes) from his cave in Thailand. While it?s certainly not the job of a journalist to help find the killer, it is a reaffirming nod that all (ethical) sunshine on important stories remains healthy and critical.

Truth is, when viewed up close, journalism, like democracy, is a big mess and sometimes a bad trip. Take the 20,000-foot view, and all the pieces make up a healthy pie of Fourth Estate watchdog responsibility, even when it?s coming from a pontificating professor in an ivory tower.

4) Honorable Mention.

Finally, an honorable mention and something to keep an eye one, related to one of most unique media characters in memory.

The first swipe against the media?s anti-Ramsey coverage was by the Ramseys themselves ? orchestrated by a wisely-chosen attorney named, L. Lin Wood (a guy Dan Rather once called the ?The Attorney for the Damned?).

Wood, an Atlanta-based counsel, popped up onto the media scene with Richard Jewell, defending the then-security guard from accusations he bombed the Atlanta games. Wood sued the media outlets that ?defamed? his client, winning most via settlements.

Then came the Ramseys as clients. Wood filed no less than 10 lawsuits against press outlets accusing his clients of being guilty, settling nearly all of them in his client?s favor. By 2003, seven years after the murder, Wood?s tenacity helped nudge Lacy, the new Boulder D.A, to announce the parents were no longer suspects. He has been their biggest, tireless champion and, frankly, with a lot of his own career at stake.

If Karr did it, Wood is two-for-two in clearing names: Ramsey and Jewell.

Meantime, keep an eye on the Gary Condit story. He?s also a Wood client.