The deaths of Hannah Clarke and her children at the hands of husband with a history of violence was so shocking that many outlets warned people in advance the details were distressing. But breathless headlines and inappropriate angles added to the anguish.
Bay of Plenty Times, 20 February 2020. Photo: PHOTO / RNZ Mediawatch
“Kia ora. Our first story tonight needs a warning and may bring up some painful issues for viewers,” Newshub at 6 host Samantha Hayes told viewers last Thursday night.
Straight after that, Newshub called Rowan Baxter as “a former Warriors player” assuming the audience would know he’d been a player for the Auckland-based NRL team.
It turns out Baxter never played for the senior squad at all and was scarcely a household name, even for sports fans.
But for many for those hearing about this through the media, his chosen career was hardly a key concern anyway. His partner and children should have been front and centre in the story.
"We cannot reduce a woman like Hannah - with a full and complex life to just her marital status," columnist Katy Hall wrote in the Brisbane paper Courier-Mail under the headline: “Hannah was not her killer’s wife.”
When RNZ.co.nz published an early online story under the headline ‘Mum, three children and Rowan Baxter die after car fire’, some readers pointed out that Hannah - a champion in her chosen sport of trampolining incidentally -- and her three children should be the ones named.
RNZ later changed the headline to “Hannah Baxter dies with three children killed in car fire” - adding the detail that Baxter died at the scene as well.
Many people also objected to the fact that early headlines referred to the deaths as if they were some kind of tragic freak accident rather than a horrible crime.
But until the facts were confirmed by police and witnesses, media were obliged to be cautious about the cause of the deaths.
The focus of Rowan Baxter in headlines such as this upset some readers. Photo: screenshot
However, “car fire murders” became a regular shorthand once more facts were in.
Part of that problem is also that journalists now produce stories quickly for online readers adding details as they come from reliable sources like police and witnesses - and ones that need to be treated with caution like social media and family members.
But the continuing focus on Baxter’s life, career and outward appearance as a family man was harder to explain - or excuse.
RNZ’s initial story also noted Baxter's brother had played sevens rugby for New Zealand for Bay of Plenty about 20 years ago.
The Herald’s website had already published a story with that as its headline and main angle. The Bay of Plenty Times said Baxter had been remembered by some as "an impressive athlete who had a cheeky side to him”.
“Your coverage is highlighting the achievements of the alleged murderer, instead of honoring the lives of the victims and the lives he took. Do you feel this is respectful of the victims?,” one reader asked on Facebook. The Bay of Times did not respond.
The clickbait-driven Daily Mail Australia was singled out for its headline, “Ex footy star who died in burning car showered children with love”.
Analysing coverage for ABC in Australia, law academic Annie Blatchford said the story was - like others in the past - framed as an individual's battle with mental health rather than about family violence.
The police cordon at the scene where the car was set on fire in Brisbane. Photo: Queensland Police
Annie Blatchford said it was “difficult to comprehend why the isolated story of a ‘monster provoked to kill’ continues to play out in the media . . . with the abundance of resources and guidelines available to journalists these days.”
That wasn’t helped by the Queensland detective in charge of the case Detective Inspector Mark Thompson pondering in a press conference whether Baxter may have been provoked. In spite of saying that wasn't what he or the Queensland Police believed, he was swiftly kicked off the case.
Here, Annie Blatchford was echoed by Grant Shimmin, a news director at Stuff’s opinion section.
He said all this reminded him of coverage of Daniel Peter Moore, a Milton plumber convicted of rape in February last year.
An Otago Daily Times report on that case ran under the headline ‘Rape in a public toilet: Married father's descent into sex attack.’
“At 34 years old, married with kids -- and an unblemished criminal record - Daniel Peter Moore was an average Kiwi bloke,” it began.
"That average-Kiwi-good-bloke-who-snapped-and-did-something-out-of-character" narrative can get right in the sea,” Shimmin wrote at the time.
This week Stuff journalist Alison Mau argued media outlets should have focused on Hannah Clarke - as she was actually known after separating from her spouse - and her children Laianah, Aaliyah, and Trey, instead of memorialising their murderer.
She wanted to know less about the past of Baxter from our media.
“However, there might be value in looking hard not at him as a person, but at what he did and how common it is,” she wrote.
Hard to argue with that.
