Perhaps "radical" isn't a strong enough description for Westboro Baptist members. They first came to prominence at funerals of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then they expanded out to other high-profile events that draw intense media coverage.

Their message is simple and told in bold lettering on the placards they carry: God hates homosexuals (their website address is www.godhatesfags.com); priests abuse children; President Barack Obama is the Antichrist.

So it was unsurprising that after last week's murder-suicide death of a Middletown family, a national story, Westboro members would bring their message to the funeral Friday. Last week, Christopher Wood, 34, killed his wife, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's three children, Chandler, 5, Gavin, 4, and Fiona, 2.

It was an incomprehensible event, one the community of Middletown and beyond is still reeling from.

So, after we confirmed that yes, Westboro would be in town, we faced a dilemma.

Should we cover the Westboro Baptist people? Should we play into their hands and give them the platform they want to spread what is essentially a message of pure hate at a time of great grief in our community?

On the other hand, isn't it our mission as journalists to cover the news, to chart the history that makes up our community, to be the paper of record? We're protectors of the First Amendment, and right next to freedom of speech is freedom of the press.

Shouldn't we objectively and dispassionately cover this as we would any other event and let the readers make their own decisions?

For the record, we did discuss our approach. It's our custom and habit to meet and talk through all sides of our coverage as soon as possible, especially with something as controversial as Westboro.

At a 10 a.m. editorial meeting Thursday, we decided that we would write an advance story that they were coming. We would keep it short and we would run it inside the print edition.

The argument was that readers would want to know about Westboro's decision to be at the Wood funeral. (We were right. The story on our website drew more than 16,500 clicks and 183 comments.)

Our second decision was that we wouldn't cover the Westboro protest on the day. We knew what they were going to say and how they were going to say it; they've been to Frederick County before. We believed there would be little benefit in retreading old ground.

We believed readers would feel the same way, that covering the event would play right into Westboro's game plan.

Don't get me wrong -- I've covered politics, so I know how the media can be spun, how the artful want to use us as a platform to spread precisely the message they wish to put across. Sadly, I recognize that sometimes they are successful.

But in many cases, it's clear when some organization or other is trying to manipulate us.

We asked what the public would gain if we allowed ourselves to be used as tool to convey hate speech. Is that really in the highest and best interest of the public?

Our only caveat, said Managing Editor Terry Headlee, was if we had some compelling reason to cover the protest -- say a riot broke out, police or protesters were hurt, gunfire erupted, or anything else that we believed was in the public interest to know.

On Friday morning, as I type this, the protest appears to have deflated quickly in part because of tight police control. We can be thankful for that.

I believe we made the right choices given what we knew at the time. It seemed to satisfy most of those in attendance. Of the hard decisions we've had to make over the years, this was one of the easier ones.

Clifford G. Cumber is assistant city editor for The Frederick News-Post. He can be reached at ccumber@newspost.com.