Initial reports by CNN, NBC, and CBS reported the name of one of the three suspects in the Washington Navy Yard shooting while scrambling to pinpoint the exact number of deaths, according toPaul Farhi of The Washington Post
. These suspects and numbers fluctuated throughout the day. Why is the news getting their info wrong?
The bottom line: Reporters are clamoring to break news without fact-checking their sources just to say they were first.
With Twitter, Reddit and traditional media on a race for first place, it’s easy to jumble together facts and sources, and birth a big heaping mess of inaccuracies. Dave Statter, a veteran TV news reporter for statter911.com said in connection to the shooting and new media:
“We’ve gotten into a situation where the media’s standard operating procedure has become report first, confirm second and correct third...I’m afraid that in our haste to compete with social media to cover breaking news, we’ve forgotten that what makes us special is our skill in confirming information, not just reporting it.”
Mark Coddington, writer for Nieman Journalism Lab, says not all reports on the shooting were bad, some journalism was quite good. He did however note a reoccurring theme: errors in breaking news are in themselves becoming breaking news. Gawker’s Tom Scocca gives the best advice ever on breaking news, “Those alarming yet tedious hours between something horrible happening and anyone figuring out what it was — forget about it, unless you’re in the vicinity.”
It’s not bad to report on news without all the details, but more precautionary measures should be taken. For example, not naming a suspect without solid confirmation is a great place to start. This ruins lives, people! One tweet, or one Reddit post with a suspect’s information and picture could be shared with hundreds of thousands of readers. Then death threats ensue until the media backpedals on their original story, but by then, the damage has been done. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if a victim caught in this predicament sued a reputable news organization for emotional distress.
Look, we’re human, we make mistakes from time to time, but how long will citizens continue to trust misleading reports? The FBI are among some of the criticizers of media outlets reporting inaccuracies, most notably during the Boston Bombings. It’s a pretty big deal when the FBI is calling you out.