Photojournalist - Mark Hertzberg - Behind the Viewfinder

Cameras in the Courts

November 18, 1998 Our big story last week, indeed perhaps our biggest of the year, was a story about something that DIDN'T happen.

November 16, 1998 Did We Overact?

October 10, 1998 He's a cop...

September 11, 1998 ...sometimes we can have a positive effect on people's lives even when some readers think we are raking them over the coals.

July 25, 1998 They say that in England you are innocent until proven guilty; in France you are guilty until proven innocent; and in America you are innocent until the next edition of the newspaper flies off the presses or the evening news comes on.

July 7, 1998 Delgado, who sat in his orange county jail jumpsuit, had tears streaming down his face as he listened to the charges being read the day after his nine-month old son died on a hot summer day, strapped in his car seat, in the backseat of Delgado's broiling Dodge Omni

November 18, 1998

Our big story last week, indeed perhaps our biggest of the year, was a story about something that DIDN'T happen.

Police in Burlington, Wisconsin, a city near Racine, arrested three teens, and questioned two others, in a plot to assassinate the school principal and other officials, and almost two dozen students. (Please see November 16 journal for the full story about what happened and how the newspaper reacted to the story). The three boys who were arrested were charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit first degree murder.

The story attracted international attention. Good-old fashioned community journalism made a big difference in how I was able to cover the story when it came to court on Monday and Wednesday.

While cameras have been allowed in Wisconsin courts for 20 years, they are not usually allowed in juvenile court. I know that photo coverage was allowed only because of my close working relationship with the judiciary for those 20 years. As the area media coordinator for the state's cameras in court program (which is administered through the state Supreme Court) I was in charge of all the arrangements for the still and TV pool of those court photos.

I thought that Monday's pool coverage had gone well, and anticipated no problems with Wednesday's pool until I learned late Tuesday morning that the Today Show had broken the rules by showing the face of one of the juveniles one of the six times they aired their tape from the pool feed (all the other stations put a digital or mosaic pattern over the suspects' faces each time they aired tape).

Phone calls flew back and forth between NBC's Chicago affiliate, the network, their attorneys, and Amanda Todd, the Supreme Court liaison, and me, until 9 p.m. Tuesday night. NBC's attorney pleaded the network's case in a special hearing Wednesday morning, and Judge Simanek decided not to bar them from getting the pool feed later that day. I had about five hours of phone conversations regarding the pool Tuesday, while I was still trying to help get our own paper out.

I got an edge over the TV coverage Wednesday when I recognized the four defense attorneys and a social worker going into a conference room with the assistant district attorney before the hearings started. I joined them and quietly took pictures as they compared calendars and agreed on dates for hearings about psychiatric evaluations and hearings about possibly waiving the juveniles into adult court. This was the kind of behind-the-scenes photo you can get only if you recognize and the people and have a hunch about what is happening, and if they know you and trust you. It is certainly not an earth-shattering photo, but it is one that took our readers someplace they couldn't go themselves.

People involved in the case of three Burlington, Wisconsin teen agers charged Wednesday November 18, 1998 with Conspriacy to Commit First Degree Intentional Homicide in an alleged plot to shoot staff and students at Burlington High School, confer to set dates for further hearings, before juvenile court hearings for the three in Racine, Wis. They are defense counsel Gerald P. Boyle, left, Mark Nielsen, David Saldana, Bridget Boyle, and social worker Lana Morgan, with assistant district attorney Richard Barta, right. (AP Photo, Mark Hertzberg, Pool)

Everything went smoothly Wednesday except for a still photographer who unsuccessfully tried to crash the pool (he was the same photographer I wrote about Monday) at the last minute and shoot his own photos.

There was a poignant sidelight to the whole story, in terms of how journalists react to their work. Jim Slosiarek and Jill Tatge, one of our reporters, had an appointment to interview one of the two teens who had been questioned, but not arrested, Tuesday. The youth stood them up. They finally caught up to him about four hours later, and he consented to be interviewed, but not named or photographed.

When Jim came back to the office he told me that the boy and his mother were given an eviction notice by their landlord during the interview. He told me how hard it was to not take a picture as the mother began to cry, but yet he felt he had to honor the request for anonymity. I told him he had done the right thing.

While he may have lost a wonderful photo, he had respected the ground rules for the interview, and not jeopardized Jill's interview. More importantly, though, he had reacted as a human being and that, in the end, was more important than anything. I told him that we each have photos that are engraved in our mind, and not captured on film. Our readers will never see those images, but we can live with ourselves, and that can make it easier to do our jobs the next day.

Jim felt better about what had happened until the next day...when the boy and his mother decided to grant television interviews that named them and showed their faces. Jim had no way of knowing that events would turn that way, and he made the right decision Tuesday.

My first journal questioned whether or not we over reacted to the story. I think not. Our next real news will probably come in a few weeks with the psychiatric and waiver hearings. Our competitors in Milwaukee may have over reacted as they rehashed the story on TV and print four days after the last real news, reporting about the "healing" the community must go through. I have a feeling that's what you report when there is no real news breaking anymore from a story like the school shooting plot.

November 18, 1998

Mark Hertzberg

Mark Hertzberg

< hertz@wi.net >
Director of Photography
Journal Times
Racine, Wisconsin

Other journals by Mark Hertzberg

363	May 2000	Three short topics
361	April 27, 2000	It's a moment frozen forever
359	April 18, 2000	I'm glad I wasn't working
346	February 18, 2000	Fatal Fire
343	January 28, 2000	Suicide By Cop
340	December 28, 1999	Four Minute Justice
338	December 11, 1999	In 1/125th of a second
336	December 4, 1999	Day in Court
332	Is Photojournalism Dead?Mark Hertzberg	On the flip side, though, many newspapers that have made a 180-degree change have changed for the better rather than for the worse
325	October 10, 1999	Oh, the people you meet
324	September 29, 1999	It was an innocent question from a high school clerk
309	July 23, 1999	I didn't mind Jerome Vine spit at me twice
307	July 21, 1999	"What have you done? What have you dragged us into?"
303	July 17, 1999	If your mother says she loves you, check it out
292	June 23, 1999	You Never Know
283	May 17, 1999	Epilogue to May 4, 1999
276	May 4, 1999	David Raymond Segura, Sr. walked out of the Racine County Jail to the cheers and hugs of his family
272	April 25, 1999	Littleton. Burlington.
265	April 18, 1999	"I can't believe I'm being paid to have fun. "
261	April 15, 1999	It was the first time...
257	March 26, 1999	The Supreme Court isn't sure I should have been able to shoot one of the most dramatic pictures I've ever taken.
248	March 13, 1999	I got nauseous on the job today...
247	March 12, 1999	The prosecution's case
246	March 12, 1999	Sidebar: One of the most difficult issues for us to consider
239	March 1, 1999	That's your guy.
222	February 11, 1999	It's a lie to say that pictures never lie, as our readers and viewers know all too well.
215	February 4, 1999	Remember report cards?
213	February 1, 1999	I saw something horrifying and shocking this week
198	January 8, 1999	Damn, it's hard to cover news stories when you know the people involved in them, and when you have to put aside personal feelings to get the story.
192	December, 1998	This journal is a tribute to you, the reader
180	November 29, 1998	Abortion. That's the only word you have to mention in any conversation, and emotions are aroused , so imagine what it's like trying to make newsroom decisions about how to cover the issue. That's where we found ourselves Thursday morning at the Racine Journal Times.
178	November 22, 1998	We Interrupt This Broadcast
176	November 18, 1998	Our big story last week, indeed perhaps our biggest of the year, was a story about something that DIDN'T happen.
175	November 16, 1998	Did We Overact?
174	November 8, 1998	Wednesday was the day the yellow smiley face from that big chain of stores from Arkansas frowned at me.
171	November 3, 1998	Monday Morning, Post Gore
170	November 2, 1998	I'm so excited, I won't be able to sleep tonight
158	October 12, 1998	It was one of those days when an assignment was as much fun as opening birthday presents.
157	October 10, 1998	He's a cop...
150	September 21, 1998	A friend of mine calls it the ultimate form of channel surfing. .
146	September 11, 1998	...sometimes we can have a positive effect on people's lives even when some readers think we are raking them over the coals. .
138	August 28, 1998	Sometimes the last thing a photographer wants to see is a camera.
120	July 25, 1998	They say that in England you are innocent until proven guilty; in France you are guilty until proven innocent; and in America you are innocent until the next edition of the newspaper flies off the presses or the evening news comes on.
111	July 12, 1998	We joke that today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish wrap. But for many people, our work lives on beyond just that day's paper.
109	July 7, 1998	Delgado, who sat in his orange county jail jumpsuit, had tears streaming down his face as he listened to the charges being read the day after his nine-month old son died on a hot summer day, strapped in his car seat, in the backseat of Delgado's broiling Dodge Omni
101	June 23, 1998	We've never shown the readers this sunset view of the city before...if all goes well, it'll stretch across Wednesday morning's front page. Today is Monday, though, and they first have to get through Tuesday's newspaper.
100	June 22, 1998	Last week I had the tables turned on me
87	June 4, 1998	..none of those pictures would have been published without his help.
82	May 29, 1998	Today was one of those days in which you hit the lows and the highs.
78	May 26, 1998	You never know where a pair of dirty socks will take you
73	May 17, 1998	I no longer have to hide under semi-trailer trucks to shoot news pictures of major industries..
67	April 24, 1998	Stop the Presses
63	April 19, 1998	Sign of Discontent
43	March 24, 1998	Humphrey Bogart, move over.
42	March 23, 1998	In the end, only one photo was important...
32	February 27, 1998	My work has now been published in a new media...on a picket sign
28	February 24, 1998	Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 3 February 23, 1998 Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 2
22	February 20, 1998	Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 1
13	February 4, 1998 (9:24 AM)	It was a situation where one has to shoot pictures first, and ask questions later Update: To Mark's February 4 posting
7	January 27, 1998	The viewfinder in our cameras is dark for the split second we shoot our photos...
5	January 23, 1998	Just what is news?
3	January 19, 1998	An 83-year-old reader called me this morning, in tears. .

Contributor since 1998