“Mugs in the News” is one of the biggest viewer magnets on the Chicago Tribune website, and I offer it this spoonful of praise: doing what it does, it could do it a lot more offensively.
But did she know her mug shot and arrest report had already been posted online for the world to see? It happens automatically. When the four sheriffs’ departments in the Tampa region put mug shots on their own websites, voila, they show up at tampabay.com. It happens to anyone arrested for any reason, even a reason as petty as driving on a license that expired eight days ago.
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It’s been dealt with pretty much the same in Chicago, Tampa Bay, and everywhere else mug shots are paraded. There’s charming boilerplate on the sites of the various sheriffs departments around Tampa Bay that offers the constabulary’s perspective on these possibilities: “An acquittal or dismissal of a criminal charge does not necessarily negate the validity of an arrest.” Newspapers like the Tribune and Times tend to cover their butts with a little more finesse. “Mugs in the News” tells viewers, “Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted.”
I have to wonder at this. Reporters have too much to do to keep a close eye on yesterday’s police blotter. When deals get struck and charges get dropped, news releases don’t often get issued.
The competition has to keep up. For the last year suntimes.com has offered its own “Mug Shots in the News.” It’s the usual array of names, charges, and faces—a lot of them the same ones the Tribune posts, but with no news stories to prop up the argument that there’s nothing to be seen here but newsmakers. “I don’t want to get into the philosophy of what we’re doing,” says editor Don Hayner, “but a lot of public records we’re putting up.”
