[A] newspaper’s coverage of a domestic violence related murder-suicide last week drew stinging criticism from readers and law enforcement officials, who called it imbalanced, insensitive and “a massive failure of journalism.”
The editor-in-chief of the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus has apologized for the article, but the criticism from the state police spokesman has continued, sparking questions over the role of law enforcement officials as media ombudsman.
Commenters charged that a story published in the Times Argus on Thursday gave improper weight to the perpetrator of the shooting, 30-year-old Luke Lacroix, rather than the victim, 29-year-old Courtney Gaboriault, an employee of the Department of Public Safety.
Those criticisms were amplified Saturday morning in a Twitter thread by Adam Silverman, the public information officer for the Vermont State Police. In 29 tweets, Silverman analyzed the content, structure and word choice of the article, highlighting portions that he found most problematic.
Silverman called on the paper to provide a formal response.
Rob Mitchell, editor-in-chief and online manager of the Times Argus and the Rutland Herald, wrote in an “ombudsman” essay published on Sunday saying the article was tilted towards the murderer.
Best practices discourage focusing on abusers. An online version of The Domestic Violence Handbook for Journalists advises that reporters “highlight recurring patterns of abusive behavior that put the more vulnerable members of families…at risk” and to “use sources who are emotionally involved with the perpetrator judiciously.”
David Delcore, who wrote the article in question, had also been reporting on victim Courtney Gaboriault, Mitchell wrote, but a separate article centered around her background was not ready to publish that day.
“For failing initially in our responsibility to highlight the brilliance of [Gaboriault’s] life, we are truly, deeply sorry,” wrote Mitchell, who was not involved in the editing of the original piece.
However, Mitchell said in an interview Monday that he does not believe criticizing newspapers is the public information officer’s role.
“It puts him and the state police in the position of becoming ombudsman of every article about crime,” Mitchell said. “That’s not to say we can’t learn something from his criticism. But there’s a line there that he needs to be careful about. There are many victims of crime in this state. It can’t just be about one or another.”
Gaboriault worked at the Vermont Crime Information Center, which is housed in the Department of Public Safety alongside the Vermont State Police. In sharing his criticisms via email with a University of Wisconsin journalism professor, Silverman wrote that the Times-Argus article angered his colleagues in the department.
“This was a tragedy that hit close to home in the Department of Public Safety,” he wrote. “We could not let this go without calling out the TA publicly.”
Silverman said in an interview on Monday that the article “did such a disservice to the community, to the standards of journalism, and to Courtney, that it was impossible to remain silent.”
“What I really wanted to do was to help both the Times-Argus and the public see what was flawed about that story,” he said.
Times-Argus Editor Steve Pappas said Monday that the newspaper received no warning that the Department of Public Safety planned to publicly lambaste the paper.
“Bottom line is, I felt like it was a cheap shot,” Pappas said about Silverman’s social media posts.
Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, emailed Pappas around 8 p.m. Friday to condemn Delcore’s article. 
“I would hope that as the editor you will take action to correct this misrepresentation of the truth,” Birmingham wrote. Pappas then forwarded the message to his management team so that they could decide together how to proceed.
They had not taken action by 11:30 the following morning, when Silverman started his Twitter thread.
“What I needed to say, I felt needed to be said publicly,” Silverman said Monday. Silverman joined the state police in March after years spent as an editor for the Burlington Free Press.
“As a longtime journalist — and now in my public information role with the state police, I can say this — the article was objectively flawed,” he said.
Pappas said he was not aware of the critical posts until Silverman tagged the Times Argus in screenshots he cross-posted to his Facebook account.
After Silverman’s posts, Pappas said, anger towards the newspaper escalated. Some comments personally attacked him and Delcore. The editor became uncomfortable after receiving text messages and visits to his home from irate readers.
Chris Evans, a communications professor and student media adviser at the University of Vermont, called Silverman’s tweets “the equivalent of putting out one or multiple press releases attacking media.”
Evans said public officials often express disappointment in media coverage, but it is rare for a public information officer to lead the charge against a publication.
“It is unusual for something like this to happen,” Evans said. “Whether it is wrong is a question for debate.”
Evans said Silverman’s use of social media muddies the waters.
“Something feels very official about a press release. Something feels official about going on a TV broadcast and offering criticism,” he said. “There’s something much more spontaneous about Twitter or Facebook.”
Silverman said that while his tweets were not vetted by supervisors, he was speaking for the Vermont State Police in his posts.
“I have access to a platform that does not need to rely on the media to facilitate a response,” Silverman said. “I felt that it was appropriate to use it.”
On Monday morning, he posted a new thread responding to the “ombudsman” piece. Silverman commended the paper for addressing the backlash, but criticized Mitchell for taking “a particularly defensive tone regarding criticism that the article blamed Courtney for her own murder.”
“If the @TimesArgus really wants to respond to this in the right way, I implore the newspaper to go further,” he wrote in closing.
Evans said sustaining criticism against the paper may raise the profile of the debate, but it also risks turning the community against the paper at a time when the organization is taking its response seriously.
“Going after someone with a club when they’re saying ‘we are trying to make things right’: that is something that should be questioned,” Evans said.
Pappas said the paper is preparing a profile of Gaboriault and a broader look at domestic violence. The editor plans to solicit commentaries from victims’ advocates and seek help from public officials to better educate the newspaper’s staff about the issue.
In response to Silverman’s call to “go further,” Pappas said, “I don’t know what that looks like.”
The editor said that one encouraging outcome is that the debate highlights how seriously Vermonters are treating domestic violence.
“If that’s the takeaway, that people are heightening their awareness and education about the issue, then great,” Pappas said. “We don’t want to keep reporting on these tragedies.”
A vigil for Gaboriault will be held at 7 pm at the park on Main St. in Barre Wednesday.
Anyone in need of help can call the Vermont Network Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-228-7395. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office also has a website with available resources.
