"I killed my baby."

Michael Balter 3/08/2009 10:10:00 AM Life and life only
I think I have a pretty good idea about who is going to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism this year. That would be Gene Weingarten, whose story about parents who accidentally killed their children by forgetting them in the backseat of their cars appears in today's Washington Post Magazine. Weingarten's story is compassionate but unsentimental, wrenching and moving while avoiding all sensationalism, and above all, nonjudgmental--just as, after reading this piece, we should be about the people who are now punishing themselves more than any court could do (yes, most were either not charged or found not guilty when they were.)

Read it, but be sure to have plenty of tissues near by. It could have happened to you--and don't fool yourself into thinking that it couldn't have.

Photo: Lyn Balfour, who left her 9 month old son Bryce in her car while it was parked at her place of work./Lisa Provence
Michael Balter

Posted by Michael Balter

I have been a working journalist for more than 40 years, beginning in Los Angeles as an investigative reporter and then in Paris as a travel, food, and science writer. For more than 20 years I have covered anthropology and archaeology writer for Science, Audubon, Scientific American, SAPIENS, and other publications. I have also covered sexual misconduct for The Verge, Scientific American, and others; I write about mental health, especially schizophrenia; and I engage in occasional media criticism. I returned to the USA in October 2017 after 30 years in Paris, and now live in the New York City area, where I currently teach journalism at City College of New York (I previously taught journalism at Boston University and New York University.) For more about me and what I do, copies of my articles, information about my book, and other goodies, please visit MY WEB SITE

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1 Comments

jqb said…
Definitely Pulitzer worthy. An incredible piece of moving, empathic, effective, mind- and life- changing journalism; I'm still in tears over this a day after reading it. (When I read "It was, she said, unintelligible screaming", I did some of my own, and I still can't read that paragraph without choking up.)

I want to share it, but I'm reluctant to impose that much heart wrench on my friends. But I do think I'll send it to Tom Clark of naturalism.org, as it ties into his arguments against a justice system based on retribution.
March 11, 2009 at 6:33 PM
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