Budd Dwyer video suicide, Budd Dwyer’s suicide becomes media dilemma

Pennsylvania Treasury Secretary R. Budd Dwyer during a news conference at his office at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, January 22, 1987. After he shot himself in front of reporters, they had to grapple with how much was used to display newspaper pages and TV coverage. United Pix Photo Courtesy of Dauphin County Historical Society

When a politician holds a press conference, he or she wants the media to cover it. Everything is documented.

But when Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, convicted of corruption, put the .357 magnum in his mouth and pulled the trigger during a press conference on January 22, 1987, it brought newspapers and news networks A thorny moral dilemma that still exists has always taught and caused pain 35 years later.