A TV network news director's dilemma: Preparing a story on a string of sensational random killings, is it proper to add a neighbor's comment that the teenage boy arrested for the crimes was trouble waiting to happen?
Not only is that quote — "I knew the boy would do something like this" — an attention-grabber, but from a journalist's perspective, serves the public's right to know about those they live among. Authorities have caught flak in the past for not heeding the warnings of scared citizens, and keeping others in the community in the dark about what may be lurking in their midst.
But such reportage can also be prejudicial to a potential juror, and therein lies the rub.