Did media move too quickly in Newtown reports?
I found the story in Sunday’s Gazette on the media’s struggles to report accurately from Newtown, Conn., fascinating. The story told of the many missteps television and other reporters made in trying to get word out first as the grim news emerged.
I, too, hesitated. I first heard a co-worker in The Gazette newsroom say something about a massacre being reported on Twitter just before my lunch break Friday. I quickly went to Twitter and saw the reports, including that possibly 27 people were dead.
I could have quickly retweeted that to those who follow me and hadn’t heard the news. But I waited. I checked our Associated Press wire service, and a small initial story vaguely suggested several victims of a shooting at a school in Newtown. That’s a big difference from 27 dead.
Shortly thereafter, Channel 3 in Madison tweeted an Associated Press report that the killer was thought to be a 20-year-old man with ties to the school. I retweeted that. Then I went home, where my wife and I watched the news on TV. One network reporter suggested the killer was actually 24. I thought, well, I just unwittingly retweeted misinformation. Later, we learned, of course, that the report of a 24-year-old shooter was false; the killer really was 20 but had a 24-year-old brother who apparently had no knowledge of his younger sibling’s plans.
Even initial reports that the killer's "ties" to the school involved his mother working as a teacher or substitute teacher were apparently false, though he apparently attended the school as a child.
In the race for ratings, every TV network is stumbling all over itself trying to, yes, get it right but also get it first. Often, they speculate. We in the newspaper industry try to quickly post breaking news on our website, but the 24-hour cycle of our print product usually affords us time for better accuracy. Do you think, in this day of instant social media, it’s great to get the news ASAP, even if some of it might be misinformation that must be corrected later? Or does that do the public--including victims and suspects--a disservice? Should the media slow down and make sure it gets it right the first time?
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
Dec 21, 2012 at 12:49 a.m.
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Dear Gazette:
NO, the media did not move to fast!
Sincerly: Calling Florida for Al Gore
Dec 20, 2012 at 9:38 p.m.
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The 24x7 fame and notoriety the press and the media give these mass killers just fuels the next nut job. Remember how Paul Harvey handled these reports? At the end of a story about some loser who had done something stupid or offensive, Harvey would say, "He would want us to mention his name," followed by silence, then would start the next story.
If the press would report them as unidentified mentally ill individuals and not give round-the-clock coverage of crime scenes and interviews of locals who knew the offenders or victims, there wouldn't be a focal point for the next deranged person to latch onto.
Dec 20, 2012 at 8:16 p.m.
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Look at all the misinformation that was spread on 9/11 and how the false info was later jumped on by the 9/11 conspiracy nuts as their proof it was an inside job. In this new shooting the media apparently already has it all figured out and people are jumping to conclusions, politicians vowing new legislation, etc all before an official report of what happened is even complete.
Dec 20, 2012 at 12:52 p.m.
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BunBun, my comments are not a call for the government to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of the media. The media will continue to print and broadcast stuff that leads people to believe that the norm in this country is instability. The media are not going to change.
The media are convinced that people want to over-focus on the negative -especially events that are horribly negative. And the media are correct, too many people are obsessed with the negative. These people are terrorizing themselves and are participating in the spread of that terror. Note how many people think that this country is going to hell at the same time life here gets better all the time -save for the media-aggravated wallowing in terror on the part of far too many people.
The remedy is for people to understand what the media are doing -and to resist it. Do not get your sense of reality from sources who compete for profit by appealing to obsessive morbidity. Stop watching and reading the repetition. The victims, the survivors, and the public already naturally know how horrified we should feel as a result of horrible experiences.
Dec 20, 2012 at 12:21 p.m.
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"Perhaps we could have a government agency
that would check every news story
and decide what should be reported
and when to report it.
I hear of other countries that do this with great success"
...and it can be named the Ministry of Truth.
Dec 20, 2012 at 11:20 a.m.
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Most reasonable people understand
that early reports are not completely reliable.
That is why they have investigations for days,
weeks, and months after an incident.
I agree that most of the problem is the need to be first
and the need to fill air time
with content that will draw
the most viewers.
Remember OJ's slow speed chase?
Dec 20, 2012 at 10:49 a.m.
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Almost everything i heard live 'on the scene' friday until about 4pm turned out to be false at some point, what's the point if they are not going to be accurate?
Dec 20, 2012 at 9:52 a.m.
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If you read special interest web sites,
you are dis-informed.
Dec 20, 2012 at 9:08 a.m.
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A journalist is a weatherman that flunked out.
Dec 20, 2012 at 12:54 a.m.
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If you don't watch the news you are "uninformed"; if you do watch the news, you're "mis-informed"
Dec 19, 2012 at 11:28 p.m.
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Along with the media, many politicians also wasted no time jumping in with inane and useless comments to glorify themselves.
Maybe Walker, Obama, and the rest of those media whores should also "slow down and make sure it gets it right the first time?"
Dec 19, 2012 at 10:29 p.m.
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Yeah, let's have the government decide what we should know and when we should know it....Might as well throw out the constitution while we are at it.
Dec 19, 2012 at 8:16 p.m.
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Simple answer: YES!!!
Dec 19, 2012 at 7:47 p.m.
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It shouldn't be way low on your mind, Motorman, because the media is telling the survivors and the public that the horror they are experiencing isn't enough, they are told to feel more and more horror.
Sig...., what's interesting about the accuracy of what you said about the media is that you are as guilty as it is when it comes to terrorization. That is, the only purpose of your comments is to terrorize people.
Dec 19, 2012 at 6:33 p.m.
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Perhaps we could have a government agency
that would check every news story
and decide what should be reported
and when to report it.
I hear of other countries that do this with great success.
Dec 19, 2012 at 5:38 p.m.
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Greg, I don't see how you can choose the right path on this one. I think you do what you think is honest and best with appropriate qualifiers before publishing the article or tweet and go from there.
Dec 19, 2012 at 3:37 p.m.
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They should hang their heads in shame for not getting the facts before reporting
Dec 19, 2012 at 3:11 p.m.
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I look online, I havnt seen a newspaper in years... the major TV stations always have it backwards and all hyped up. They are the reason why we have killers, we spotlight them and make them famous. Not to mention scared every parent out there, and also making people think guns are bad.
Dec 19, 2012 at 1:12 p.m.
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Yes they reported too much detail, which turned out to be incorrect way to early, as always.
This is a sad sad society we live in, and a lot of the reporters and stations are right at the bottom of it IMO...
Dec 19, 2012 at 12:07 p.m.
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I'm sure Ryan Lanza wishes they they would get it right the first time.
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