Albert Gonzalez, the celebrated cybercriminal, is Cuban American. But is his ethnicity relevant to report in articles, or does doing so unfairly stigmatize the Cuban-American community?

South Florida and the nation are in the midst of building what may be the world's first genuine multicultural society, and so sensitivities are acute about labeling in the media. Cesar Pizarro, a retired general manager of El Nuevo Herald, was offended by the early articles in The Herald that, to him, gratuitously disclosed Gonzalez's ethnic background.

``What if he had been Jewish or black?'' Pizarro asked me. ``No one refers in articles to Bernie Madoff as Jewish. Why are they always interested in pointing out Cubans?''

Anyway, he adds, Gonzalez was born in Miami. ``He's American,'' Pizarro said.

The three reporters who wrote most of the Gonzalez stories -- Michael Sallah, Nirvi Shah and Rob Barry -- made a spirited defense of their labeling.

``We tried to get background material on a suspect who pulled off the largest identity theft in U.S. history,'' Sallah wrote me in an e-mail. ``So, obviously, you want to know more about him. Where he's from. etc. He's a first generation American raised by immigrant parents. The reference was strictly for bio reasons.

``If you watched the Kennedy funeral and burial over the weekend, the commentators repeatedly referred to the late senator as `Irish-American' and `Irish Catholic' because they were focusing on his biography, or obituary in this case. At one point, they even referred to his wife, Vicki Reggie (the daughter of a prominent Louisiana political family) as a `Lebanese American,' and again, as a `Lebanese Catholic' from Louisiana.''

Shah adds a personal perspective. She was born here, too, she said, but considers herself to be ``Indian-American,'' and by implication expects to be identified as such.

The three argue a good case. But they and their editors who didn't step in on the stories are still wrong. The reasons are subtle ones that have nothing to do with the facts, but how they are used.

Their first article ran Aug. 18 on Page 1A and reported deep in the story: ``The indictment represents the latest brush with the law for Gonzalez, a Cuban-American high school graduate who became known to local hackers for his extraordinary computer skills and ability to navigate vast streams of data.''

Shah, in a solo turn, wrote two days later: ``Gonzalez, a Cuban American, turned informant in a 2003 credit card theft case in New Jersey, providing information to the Secret Service.''

Ethnic background can of course be addressed in articles, but only when it is relevant, or in a relevant context. It was neither in the above two examples.

As Arlene Morgan, associate dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, wrote me: ``In Sen. Kennedy's case, his Irish heritage was part of his profile and he wore that heritage proudly. Reporters used it because he himself identified that way. My philosophy has always been to ask yourself if the identification is relevant to the story and if it is, use it. It is of course best to ask the source how he or she self identifies.

``This gets trickier in crime stories because you do not want to perpetuate stereotypes. If the ethnic background is relevant -- say in a hate crime -- then I would use it. But if not relevant, then I see no purpose in using it, especially when such identifications rarely add any information to the telling of the crime.''

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