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KDKA never aired the report. It canceled its broadcast plans when it heard that Dugan was "considering doing harm to himself." The next day, Dugan committed suicide by overdosing on aspirin and alcohol. That set off a wave of criticism of the station.

"It's the use of key words — possibly illegal, at the very least — that call into question whether the report was worth doing in the first place," Post-Gazette TV columnist Rob Owen said. "If the best Griffin could dig up was a trip to an adult bookstore (not illegal) and violation of church rules, then there's not much in it to serve the public interest. It comes off looking like another 'gotcha'-style story designed for no benefit except the TV station's ratings."

"What kind of culture (individual+church+politics+press+commercialism) sets the stage for this sort of pain after a lifetime of service, sacrifice and silent struggling? What kind of people patiently plan and then wait for such a person's failure?" Grove City College psychology professor Warren Throckmorton asked on his blog. "Brent Dugan apparently led an honorable, commendable and generous life. He deserved much better than treachery for the sake of commercialism."

James Mead, pastor to Pittsburgh Presbytery, told members in December, "It is the view of many, including me, that KDKA may well be said to have crossed boundaries of acceptable journalistic practices in its development and treatment of this story, and its treatment of our pastor who was its subject."

This week, Pittsburgh's main ecumenical body filed an official complaint with the FCC as the station seeks renewal of its broadcast license. While Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania says it doesn't want KDKA's license revoked, it does want an apology "for the misleading promos and unfortunate lapse in journalistic reporting that led to the Rev. Brent Dugan's unfortunate death."

The Post-Gazette's Ann Rogers reports:

[The letter to the FCC] says the promos "sentenced" the Rev. Dugan before the presbytery had time to look into the situation, which could have produced a church process that "provided for repentance, rehabilitation and forgiveness." It says that the promos violated the Code of Broadcast News Ethics, and the letter deplores "the exploitation of religious leaders and issues for increased ratings at the expense of journalistic integrity and the truth." Mr. Mead said they were not asking to stop coverage of clergy who commit crimes, but to refrain from sensationalistic stories that would not be considered news if they were about someone in a different profession.

You might wonder why Weblog is covering this now, instead of on November 3, when Dugan committed suicide. We probably would have given this more attention, but we were busy. On November 2, Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals amid news reports that he had been involved with a male prostitute. So far, Weblog has seen no comparisons of media coverage of those two cases. But one wonders: What made the Haggard case such an acceptable story that we're still seeing articles and commentaries about it (Haggards to leave Colorado Springs! Mike Jones to auction his massage table on eBay!), while the Dugan case is a sensationalistic "gotcha" story "with no benefit" that "would not be considered news if it was about someone in a different profession"?

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February (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51