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Opinion In Earnhardt case, now is not the time to look away
NEW YORK -- The photos are gruesome. Everyone agrees on that, but not much else. Two weeks have passed since Dale Earnhardt was killed in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. Questions about whether his death could have been prevented haven't gone away, and neither has the intense interest in NASCAR that it sparked. More people watched Sunday's Las Vegas 400 than saw Duke play North Carolina in college basketball. More compelling than either was a prerace news conference in which Teresa Earnhardt discussed her attempt to keep The Orlando Sentinel from publicizing her husband's autopsy, then appealed to the public for help. "I want to let you know that if access to the photos is allowed, others will demand them, too," she said, with Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr., sitting tightlipped by her side. "And make no mistake, sooner or later the photos will end up unprotected and published ... and most certainly on the Internet." She is right, of course. The newspaper, which ran a series highlighting the safety issues surrounding the deaths of three other NASCAR drivers in the past nine months, has provided assurances it will not publish the photos. Editor Tim Franklin said the Sentinel only wants to have an independent expert examine the evidence and determine of the cause of death. He also suggested a representative of the Earnhardt estate be present to make certain the pictures aren't copied. But Franklin knows what Teresa Earnhardt said is true. If the Sentinel succeeds in getting a look, requests from other news organizations, some of them less scrupulous, will follow. And somewhere along that continuum, her worst fears will be realized.
A judge in Volusia County, Fla., will decide Thursday whether to lift a temporary injunction barring release of the photos to the Sentinel. The state has always treated autopsies as matters of public record -- except in criminal investigations -- but Judge Joseph Will broke with precedent in his initial ruling. He decided the photos had no "bona fide newsworthiness" and could cause the family "additional anguish and grief." And when Teresa Earnhardt pleaded at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for anyone "who feels strongly as we do, to let your voices be heard," the NASCAR nation responded. As of Tuesday, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state lawmakers had received more than 12,000 e-mails. A woman from North Carolina wrote a letter warning Bush there are "a lot more NASCAR fans in the Southeast than there are Republicans," and said that she and several hundred other people plan to start a boycott of Sentinel advertisers. "When Dale Earnhardt fans spread their wings in Florida, they ain't seen nothing yet," said Cheryl Mundy, who runs a contracting business. Three Republican lawmakers in Florida are already at work drafting legislation to treat autopsy photos as private medical records, thus prohibiting their release. The law almost certainly won't be ready in time for a vote before Thursday's hearing, but moving beyond grandstanding to actually presenting such legislation would only compound the tragedy of Earnhardt's death. NASCAR's response to the deaths of four of its drivers -- all of them frighteningly similar -- has been to drag its feet. Worse, there are signs drivers on the circuit have been pressured to shut up, to stop airing their concerns in public. "Sorry, I can't talk about safety," a driver told the Gastonia (N.C.) Gazette at the Las Vegas Speedway. "I'll talk about my team, my family ... but I can't talk about safety anymore." The Gazette concluded that "many drivers are more scared of NASCAR than they are of death, apparently, and it's hard to take up the cause of men who won't stand up for themselves anymore." But someone has to, unpopular as the cause might seem. NASCAR is bigger, more powerful and more closely controlled than ever. The circuit has a new $2 billion-plus TV package, and even before the ratings jumps recorded this season, it trailed only the NFL in terms of weekly audiences. If the people at the top ride this wave of emotion without being forced to change the way they do business, another driver will pay the consequences soon enough. In Rockingham, N.C., just before the race held the week after Earnhardt's crash, defending champion Bobby Labonte stopped outside the driver's meeting to talk to a few reporters. "We're looking at this from every angle," he said, "but maybe it's a good thing that people on the outside are taking a hard look at things, too." The photos are gruesome, to be sure. But the real shame would be to avert our eyes before we learn the painful lesson they can teach. Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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