Courtesy FBI.
Yesterday, the FBI released chilling surveillance video and photos of Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis moving through Building 197 on the day when he killed 12 people.
The photos and video were published by DCist, as well as just about every major news outlet in the country, and the reaction to this decision was immediate, with some claiming that the photos glorified the shooter.
Lindsay Godwin, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington field office, explained that the agency released the information and footage “in order to provide a timeframe of activity that morning and provide insight into his motivations.”
“The video, while understandably very raw for many people, we wanted to show that he’s a single shooter,” Godwin told DCist. “That was a concern to the public and in the media the last week or so. We wanted to definitely show that he was by himself. There was nobody else assisting him.”
Godwin said the FBI coordinated the release of the information with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). They also informed the families of the victims that the information and footage, which Godwin says was carefully chosen, was going to be released.
“We wanted to make sure that no witnesses or victims were shown in any of the pictures of surveillance footage,” she said. “We chose images of only Alexis, as he moved through the building. “
Godwin said the footage and photos are “a value to the public’s interest to clarify that time frame and the activity that morning.” She said no further photos or footage would be released.
John Watson, a professor of journalism ethics at American University, said he thought criticism regarding the release and publishing of the photos and footage is “totally off base.”
“That sort of rationale would preclude the visual reporting of any bad news,” Watson said. “Most breaking news is bad news. If you’re going to be censoring yourself on that basis, you really couldn’t do important breaking news.”
Watson said he thought the FBI was “very responsible in withholding the graphic shots, although I think they probably should have let journalists decide which photos to use.”
“I don’t see any particular harm in that,” Watson said of releasing video of Alexis moving through Building 197’s hallways with a shotgun. “The people who might be inspired to do wrong, they might well be inspired to do wrong by the simple announcement that this event has happened. If you’re looking to stop that, you would have to stop the reports of a lot of bad news. You can’t do that if you’re going to be a journalist. You can’t do that if you’re going to be a government that is going to let people know what’s going on, even if what’s going on is very sad and crazy.”
“It was chilling,” Watson said of the photos and footage, “But it was a chilling situation.”
