Walton DWI Trial Causes Media Dilemma

The May 28 trial of Alice Walton, founder of the Llama Co. of Fayetteville, caused problems for some Northwest Arkansas media outlets.

Walton was arrested Jan. 28 and cited for driving while intoxicated after she lost control of her 1997 Toyota 4-Runner and ran into a gas meter on a dark, deserted Springdale road. Walton refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test.

Walton decided to take the issue to court armed with two attorneys and 22 witnesses. By our deadline, however, the trial had not concluded.

The dilemma, basically, is whether Walton, the second-richest woman in the country (with $6.3 billion) and daughter of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, is a public figure.

In January, the Northwest Arkansas Times initially ignored the accident, saying the paper didn’t cover misdemeanor arrests. But, after the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote about the arrest, the Times finally followed with its own story two days after the News broke the story. In an editorial, the Times said it had ultimately decided “while not a public official, [Walton] is unquestionably a public figure.”

Charlie Alison, night metro editor at the News, says, since Walton broke her nose, it was the personal injury aspect of the accident that justified coverage in his paper, not the DWI charge.

More recently, Walton’s trial generated a debate between the news directors for KFSM-TV, Channel 5, a CBS affiliate.

Bur Edson, news director in Fort Smith, argued that the trial should be covered: CNN, ABC and NBC were there getting footage. Steve Voorhies, assistant news director in Fayetteville, says Walton isn’t a public figure, so only the “media circus” outside the trial should be covered. Edson finally acquiesced.

“Generally speaking, we only do DWIs if it is basically a police officer or an elected official or someone of that ilk — when it draws into question their job,” says Edson.

As far as we could tell, the rest of the Northwest Arkansas media covered the trial.

Is Alice Walton a public figure by journalistic standards? We think so, at least as far as a business journal is concerned. She’s hard to ignore.