Anderson Cooper refused to name the Orlando shooter. Will other media follow?

In a prime-time live broadcast Monday night, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper honored the victims of the Orlando shooting, fighting back tears as he read the names, ages and brief bios of those killed early Sunday morning. But Cooper, who publicly came out as gay almost four years ago, said he would not show one person’s name or photo during his broadcast: that of the gunman.

"In the next two hours we want to try to keep the focus where we think it belongs, on the people whose lives were cut short," Cooper said on his broadcast.

“They are more than a list of names,” Cooper added, voice trembling. “They are people who loved and who were loved.”

Naming mass shooters has become a complicated decision for officials and news outlets, who want to balance the public’s right to know with minimizing the risk of making shooters famous or encouraging copycat behavior.

And while the details of the Orlando shooting are unfolding, several prominent people, including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and FBI Director James Comey, purposely avoided using the shooter’s name.

News outlets are frequently criticized for plastering the shooter’s face everywhere, and many have chosen to spotlight the victims over the shooter. But U.S. media still consistently name the shooter, and it’s unclear if that process will ever change.

A campaign called No Notoriety has challenged the media to report on mass shootings responsibly:

“The quest for notoriety and infamy is a well known motivating factor in rampage mass killings and violent copycat crimes,” the group’s website states. “In an effort to reduce future tragedies, we CHALLENGE THE MEDIA – calling for RESPONSIBLE MEDIA COVERAGE FOR THE SAKE OF PUBLIC SAFETY when reporting on individuals who commit or attempt acts of rampage mass violence, thereby depriving violent like minded individuals the media celebrity and media spotlight they so crave.”

Its founders, Caren and Tom Teves, started the campaign after they lost their son Alex in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting.

After the shooting in which their son died, “we learned nothing about the victims," Caren Teves told CNN. "We learned nothing about how to find out about the victims."

The campaign calls for media to limit the name and likeness of shooters unless they’re still at large; refuse to publish statements, videos and manifestos made by the shooter; and promote victims’ stories instead.

One Canadian news organization did just that in June 2014, when a gunman shot five Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and three of them died. When police caught the shooter after a massive 28-hour manhunt, the Sun News, a Canadian outlet, announced they would no longer be using the shooter’s name.

“Being in the media, it’s a dilemma. We have an obligation to tell the public what’s going on, that’s our job, it’s to inform. And of course, networks care about ratings,” said Sun News contributor Marissa Simkew at the time, according to Public Radio International.

“For us in the press, we have to take an honest look in the mirror to determine if, in fact, we are contributing to this very disturbing phenomenon,” she added.

No major U.S. news outlets have instituted a policy of not naming mass shooters, and many have already widely spread the name and image of the Orlando shooter. But a couple news personalities, including Cooper, have chosen to not name shooters in some past cases.

A sheriff announced he would not be naming the shooter who killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Cooper said during his broadcast that he would not be naming the shooter either. However, as the Washington Post pointed out, Cooper has named shooters in other situations.

A Reddit post in October 2014 talked about how other countries handle naming suspects in crimes, not particularly in cases of mass shootings, but in any criminal case to avoid prematurely convicting the suspect.

But not everyone is convinced that the public benefits when the suspect is not named.

Al Tompkins, a 30-year reporter and senior faculty at Poynter, says “full, thoughtful reporting might lead to understanding and even prevention.”

“Who among us would suggest journalists should not have identified and investigated everything there was to know about the 9/11 hijackers?” Tompkins wrote. “The wall-to-wall coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing has not lead to copycat bombings; the coverage of the horrific Oklahoma City federal courthouse bombing didn't lead to similar terrorism.”

Overall, Tompkins said reporters have an obligation to report information rather than withhold it.

“When we understand the problem, we avoid quick-fix solutions that don’t work,” he wrote. “The surest solution to any problem begins with the free flow of reliable information.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Anderson Cooper refused to name the Orlando shooter. Will other media follow?."