Unpopular questions – job definition of a journalist

The anger was understandable, but misplaced.

The photos were – are – heartrending.

Some of those in the photos were young, clearly at the beginning of a life filled with hope. Some were older, suggestive of lives well lived, with more to come. Short hair. Long hair. Facial hair. Hats. Glasses.

Most sported the obligatory smile that marks a photo plucked from Facebook.

All dead. Murdered. By a man who, by any normal definition, was insane.

Still, Gabriel Wortman of Portapique , N.S., did his best to avoid police, while pretending to be one, and killed with purpose, 22 times last month. He knew what he was doing.

He wasn’t like Vincent

Li. That’s the man who attacked a fellow passenger on a

Greyhound bus in Manitoba with a knife, beheading him. Li believed his victim was an evil alien who had to be torn apart.

There was no warning in the Li case in 2009. There was in the Wortman case. Which brings me to the anger.

The post was forwarded to me via Facebook.

“With my policing background, I cannot stay quiet about this. The media sucks. They have sucked since I can remember. They are a big part of the problem as the sensationalize and try to blame and cause controversy.

“Are the recent events in NS not sensational enough? THEY HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO All THE PEOPLE (that includes emergency responders) to simply report,” it said in part.

“The media has power in their delivery of information to the masses. How they deliver the information sways public opinions and has an impact on people who the media has deemed ‘blameworthy.’

“Police often having targets on our backs. I have always quietly fumed about this over the years. But today I have had enough.”

It’s a familiar attack, especially if you’ve spent 15 years running a newsroom.

The writer described herself as a former police officer of 17 years. She wanted to pass along what she said was a letter from a retired RCMP officer, sent to the various TV news organizations scrambling to cover the killing spree.

The officer was angry reporters wanted to know if the RCMP got it right when alerting the public as the killing spree continued. The situation was, he said, “Pure chaos, but controlled chaos, once the first reports came in.”

The police did the best they could, scrambling to keep up with a rapidly changing situation, he said.

No doubt. But reporters were questioning the system used to do that. And as time goes on, the media have started asking other questions that need answering.

How is it a man known to others in his community as dangerous was not known to police? How is it he ended up with what looked like an RCMP cruiser, and got his hands on what looked like an RCMP uniform, and police didn’t react? How is it police were warned he had a cache of illegal weapons, yet nothing was done.

All that, yet when he exploded into violence, police were surprised.

Those are unpopular questions, especially given the bravery of officer Heidi Stevenson, killed during the spree. But they are questions that need asking, because the answers might help prevent something like this from happening again.

Unpopular questions. The job definition of a journalist.