Poynter on the Record

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. ...

... 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."
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