Death at Cathedral Ledge

Union Leader said:

A Manchester man apparently committed suicide when he fell 600 feet to his death at Cathedral Ledge in North Conway, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

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Article is here

I assume they have evidence ?
Either way it was a sad day,condolences to all his family and friends.

Using a loaded term like "suicide" in a preliminary statement, and reporting it without any further clarification, both amount to unprofessional behavior. I hope both organizations do a better job in the future.

I offer condolences to family, friends and community; it's tragic to lose someone in a fall.

--Mike

Sorry, complainers. The Union Leader.com story clearly attributes the characterization of this death as an apparent suicide to the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department. Here’s the lead paragraph:

CONWAY – A Manchester man apparently committed suicide when he fell 600 feet to his death at Cathedral Ledge in North Conway, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

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Full text of the F&G news release is here:

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Newsroom/News_2009/News_2009_Q3/SR_Cathedral_Ldg_fatal_092909.html

It would be improper for the reporter to have speculated about how/why an unattended death occurred. It is not improper to report what an “official” source might say about it.

The reporting of suicides is a very, very sensitive issue in newsrooms all over the country. Most err on the side of “say nothing,” leaving the public to speculate about how a 17 year old kid (or 45 year-old father of five and loving husband) died at home “unexpectedly,” or without leaving skid marks while driving alone in a high speed single-car collision with a bridge abutment.

My own sense of things as a career journalist is that if that aspect of a death can be legitimately reported – that is, with attribution to a source responsible for responding to the incident or attending to the investigation – it should be. I am not insensitive to the emotions of family members left behind, and I find myself sympathetic to them. But I also believe those emotions and sympathies should not dictate how a news story is edited.

Suicide is horrible thing that happens in our midst more often than we probably think or want to believe it does. (I, myself, have had several friends experience it within their families.) It is a topic that warrants open reporting and discussion within our communities, as a warning to all of us.

G.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way -- as a journalist or otherwise -- with the Manchester Union-Leader or NH F&G. My observations arise from having worked nearly 40 years in the journalism business.

Wrong-o. F&G shouldn't drop a tidbit like that unexplained and the Union-Leader shouldn't report it in a similar manner. Obviously, this is a matter of opinion; this is how I see it. It's unprofessional in the way it was handled.

I'm not involved in this, but my impression is that the UL leaned towards sensationalism. I think this less because they didn't challenge F&G's unexplained conclusion, and more because they took F&G's "fall" and translated it as "leap" for the hot headline (as one UL poster has already pointed out).

Grumpy said:

Sorry, complainers. The Union Leader.com story clearly attributes the characterization of this death as an apparent suicide to the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department.
G.

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...Tacky....

The guy is, tragically, dead. As a climber, this article eliminates my initial thought. And perhaps eliminates the possibility that it was some unfortunate tourist accident, or a murder, or kids trundling rocks on climbers.

In our watered-down pc world, there is still room for truth or even well founded speculation by authorities. Squeamishness does not restore life.

I've had three friends commit suicide. All thrilling and life-loving people with great families and no obvious signs of distress. I guess we could say that John was found hung, Melinda was found overdosed and Andy was found shot in the head and pretend there were less-obvious reasons.

But why? To pretend that suicide doesn't happen, that we don't need to be more vigilant in the love and protection of our friends? Suicide happens and we are the only line of protection.

Here's my personal rant - until society takes mental illness as seriously as it tackles physical ailments, we will all continue to lose loved ones in the most tragic way possible. And be a lesser nation for it.

I can think of times when I've gone hiking because I was pissed off about something or even depressed. I'll put of my i-pod and earbuds and go to my favorite local hiking trail. I do this to relieve the stress or get my spirits up and it always works. There have been a few times during such hikes when I've been so down about something that I haven't paid attention to what I was doing that I have literally walked into a tree and fallen into a shallow river. Obviously none of these actions were suicide attempts but it's not far of a stretch to say that my head could have landed on a rock and I could have been found dead. Given that combined with the state of mind in which I left to begin my hike, I could see my local newspaper reporting it as a suicide.

While this story certainly does have the sounds of suicide, I really do think the news source in this case just did their job by reporting what the authorities told them. If further investigation is needed then I'm sure the proper authorities will determine that. I would hope if the original investigation turns out to be mistaken that the Ledger would be quick to print a follow-up story.

The story didn't hit the Conway Daily Sun until this morning. A member of Conway PD is quoted as saying that accident and homicide had been ruled out; "...there would have been no other reason besides suicide to cross over to the other side of the fence."

Interestingly, or sadly, perhaps, the Union Leader is now reporting that, although Mr. Clark's wife said that he "was depressed and had talked about suicide," she is not happy with the conclusion that his death was a suicide, and does not believe that he would have killed himself.

Since this is not hiking or climbing related, I do not see the need to continue this discussion on this site.

- darren