AP Report on Michael Tracey!

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by RiverRat, Aug 31, 2006.

  1. RiverRat

    RiverRat FFJ Sr. Member Extraordinaire (Pictured at Lef

    Prof's role in JonBenet case debated By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
    Thu Aug 31, 3:54 AM ET


    Investigators say the journalism professor who tipped them off about John Mark Karr's claim to be JonBenet Ramsey's killer "did us a great service," but journalism educators question whether he crossed the ethical line that keeps news reporters independent of the government.

    The key, educators said this week, is whether University of Colorado professor Michael Tracey — who has produced three documentaries on the Ramsey case and is working on a book — considered himself a journalist or an academic when he gathered Karr's gruesome confessions for authorities.

    As a journalist, the educators said, Tracey could be expected to avoid close collaboration with investigators to maintain his independence, except in exceptional circumstances. As an academic, even an academic in the field of journalism, he would have more leeway to work with investigators, they said.

    "To the extent he is acting as a journalist, he should abide by the ethical norms guiding that profession," said Erik Ugland, an assistant professor at Marquette University and head of the Media Ethics Division for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

    "On the other hand, if he is simply a college professor who's been sort of swept up into this maelstrom, then there's no reason he can't cooperate with police if his conscience compels him to do so," Ugland said.

    For Tracey, the answer is simple: "I'm an academic, I'm a scholar. I'm not a journalist," he told The Associated Press Wednesday.

    "I was functioning as a member of the community and a father," he said. "That was my motivation, that it would have been wrong for me not to go to the authorities."

    Tracey's four-year correspondence with Karr, by e-mail and telephone, is what led Boulder County district attorney's investigators to track Karr to Thailand, bring him back to Boulder and arrest him on a murder warrant in the 1996 slaying. The case disintegrated when DNA tests showed Karr could not be the killer.

    After the case collapsed, District Attorney Mary Lacy defended the decision to arrest Karr and praised Tracey for his help. At a news conference, she called him "a journalist who could have gone public with this at any time" but instead chose to work with investigators.

    "Bottom line is, he did a great service," she said.

    Deputy District Attorney Peter Maguire said Tracey had been in effect a confidential informant. "He was very valuable to us working in an undercover capacity," he said.

    Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter scholar for journalism values at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said that pointed up what he called a troubling aspect of the case: Was Tracey cooperating with police and working as a journalist at the same time?

    "Journalists operate under this principal of independence," he said. "We scrutinize the police and the prosecution and the methods of the investigation. If we are collaborating, then our ability — real or perceived — to be a watchdog is compromised."

    Steele stressed he was not passing judgment on Tracey because he did not know all the details.

    Steele said that in rare cases, it might be appropriate even for a working journalist to cooperate with police.

    "Let's say that we are contacted by the suspect in a murder, and this suspect is on the loose and there's danger to the public. It may be appropriate to alert law enforcement to the contact we've had with that suspect in the murder," he said.

    Paul Voakes, dean of the University of Colorado journalism school where Tracey teaches, said he supports Tracey.

    "What Michael did was take the civic duty path," Voakes said.

    Tracey said he has no doubts he did the right thing, especially after Karr told him he was attracted to young girls. Lacy said Thai and other authorities arrested Karr after he started paying attention to a 5-year-old schoolgirl in Bangkok.

    "I had an ethical, a moral responsibility to try and get this guy investigated. What am I supposed to do when he starts talking about little girls and what he wants to do to them?" he said.

    "My conscience is really quite clear."

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060831/ap_on_re_us/jonbenet_ramsey_professor_1
     
  2. Mandarin

    Mandarin Member

    What????

    What were you supposed to do professor?????

    ..... Well, Dick Tracy, I guess you're supposed to waste 4 years of your life, while JMK continues his life of alleged debauchery, whilst you sit in a bar for hours before getting back on your keyboard to chat with him endlessly ....

    That's 4 years that you allowed him to continue in his torturous mind, all the while trying to bait him & get more meat for your next blockbuster on Jonbenet Ramsey.

    You Incorrigible Rat!

    Regards,
    Mandarin
     
  3. Sabrina

    Sabrina Member

    Mary Lacy seemed to be immediately concerned that he would harm a child in Thailand, what about the other 3 1/2 years? Were no children at risk then?
     
  4. Tricia

    Tricia Administrator Staff Member

    Good News. Dan Elliot has already contacted me. He is doing more "background" on Tracey.

    Should be interesting.
     
  5. Show Me

    Show Me FFJ Senior Member

    That is exactly what is needed....someone to give Tracey a dose of his own medicine.....lucky Tracey at least he's not being accused of viciously murdering a six year old child.
     
  6. Why_Nut

    Why_Nut FFJ Senior Member

    Excellent! You know what this means, yes? It means we can officially stop calling these television programs he does "documentaries," since journalists produce documentaries and academicians and scholars do not. I hereby declare that Michael Tracey, father and ordinary citizen, produces "home movies" about the Ramsey family.
     
  7. koldkase

    koldkase FFJ Senior Member

    Why yes. I think you're right.

    Michael Tracey: professional Ramsey groupie.

    That works for me.
     
  8. Show Me

    Show Me FFJ Senior Member

    Funny!

    Patsy's ready for her close up Mr. Demille.
     
  9. The Punisher

    The Punisher Member

    (As James Cagney): You no-good, dirty rat!
     
  10. BobC

    BobC Poster of the EON - Fabulous Inimitable Transcript

    "He did a great service for us."

    Translation: Tracey made a complete fool of everyone and we really appreciate that. $24,000 was a small price to pay for a wild goose chase that ended in our public humiliation.

    These are the dumbest people I have ever seen anywhere.
     
  11. amster

    amster Member


    Yep. Sounds like he's obsessed. Perhaps Inside Edition can do an interview with him clutching pics of John and Patsy, sobbing and surrounded by stacks of money he's collected off the head of a murdered 6 year old?
     
  12. wombat

    wombat Member

    From the Elliot article:

    Yeah, probably Karr didn't molest any children in the four years Tracey was communicating with him. Probably everything was fine for children near Karr all that time.
     
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