TELEVISION REVIEW : Task Force Arrest Put TV in Tricky Position

At about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Channel 8 interrupted its network feed on “The Young and the Restless” to announce the arrest of a suspect in the recent slaying of a young transient woman, Cynthia Lou McVey. It was the television equivalent of a banner headline, unusual treatment for such a case.

Even though Channel 8 emphasized that Alan Michael Stevens was being held in connection with only one killing, it was clear this was no ordinary murder arrest.

Stevens had been arrested by the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force, a three-agency group set up to investigate more than 40 killings in San Diego County. Media and police officials had earlier speculated that McVey’s killing was related to this apparent series of deaths, killings that some believed were related to an equally gruesome run of killings in Seattle.

Was Stevens the Green River killer? The question was enough to send reporters throughout the county scurrying for information, and it was enough to prompt KFMB-TV (Channel 8) to break in with its special report, which pointed out that Seattle police had already ruled out Stevens as a Green River suspect.

“At that time, we knew there had been an arrest and the arrest had been made by the task force,” Channel 8 managing editor Marty Van Housen said. “It was the first significant move they’d made.”

The story put all of the local media in a difficult position, but especially the television news departments.

The local newspapers were able to take the time to flesh out the story, to carefully word references to the other killings. Television is the medium of immediacy, and it wanted to get the news on the air. If Stevens was accused of being a serial murderer, it could be one of the biggest stories of the year. Yet there was only a remote indication from law enforcement officials that he was suspected of being a serial killer.

The television stations had to be wary of making too much out of the arrest, even though it was made by the task force. Such is the fine line between sensationalism and speculative, insightful reporting.

When the first reports of the arrest reached its newsroom, KGTV (Channel 10) was in the midst of its hourlong “InSide San Diego” program, so it was easy to slide news of the arrest into its regular news segments. KNSD-TV (Channel 39) waited until its regularly scheduled news update at 12:26 p.m. to make its first report of the arrest.

“We did not say ‘Green River’ and we did not say he was suspected of other murders,” Channel 39 managing editor Art Cerf said. “We were just being very careful.”

There was good reason to be cautious, as it turned out. The task force was, in fact, investigating Stevens’ possible link to other killings in the county. But that’s a long way from suggesting Stevens is suspected of being a serial killer.

“It’s the kind of story that’s easy to raise fear in people’s minds,” Van Housen said.

In all the day’s newscasts, the television news departments were using phrases like “may provide clues to other murders” and the “pattern was similar to 39 other slayings,” carefully avoiding any direct insinuation that Stevens was suspected of being a serial killer. Newspaper headlines the next day were equally cautious.

Yet Tuesday night, all three network affiliates spent an inordinate amount of time describing the Green River killings, devoting much of the early part of their broadcasts to explaining how Stevens was not necessarily connected to the series. Channel 10, in particular, did extensive research on Stevens’ background.

“He appeared gentle, this long-haired tattooed giant,” reporter Jim Wilkerson told viewers. It was extraordinary coverage for a man accused of only one murder.

“The task force itself was involved; this wasn’t just an arrest by a homicide detective,” Channel 10 news director Paul Sands said. “Do you speculate? Yes, because people have been speculating.”

The television reports raised “legitimate questions” about Stevens’ involvement in the other killings, according to task force spokeswoman Sgt. Liz Foster. “It is something the task force is looking into,” she said.

Sands compared the coverage of Stevens arrest to that of mass murderer Ted Bundy. Sands was working in Seattle when Bundy was originally arrested and accused of only one murder.

“We did about the same thing here,” Sands said. “You say, ‘Here’s everything we know about the guy, because there’s a major task force investigating 40 murders.’ You cannot come out and say he’s suspected of being a mass murderer, but you can say he’s a suspect in one of the mass murders.”

That Stevens was suspected of more than one killing--but not all of the killings and definitely not the Seattle killings--must have confused many viewers, who may have heard or read reports that all the slayings could be the work of one man. A two-hour special, “Manhunt: Live! A Chance to End the Nightmare,” which aired two weeks ago and sought clues to the serial killings, certainly suggested that police forces were seeking one man.

“Law enforcement said months ago that there may be more than one suspect,” San Diego Police Department spokesman Bill Robinson said. “During that ‘Manhunt’ show, Patrick Duffy (the narrator) kept validating the theory that one man might have done it. It was somewhat misleading to the general public, sort of a ‘Geraldo!’ approach. But the show did generate information.”

The public’s growing awareness of the vast number of unexplained killings, fueled by increasing media coverage, made Stevens’ arrest big news. But now it is becoming clear that it may not be accurate to lump McVey’s killing and all the others together into one big sensational murder mystery.

“To narrow it down to one case gained national attention (for the killings),” Robinson pointed out. “So a little bit of overreaction is understandable.”