Quote:
Originally Posted by eweissenbach
It is clear just how much misinformation was originally disseminated. It is sickening how news and quasi news sources, in an effort to "get the scoop", will jump to conclusions.
Reported as fact:
The killer was Ryan Lanza - Wrong, it turned out to be Adam, Ryans younger brother - I saw this reported on the internet with his picture no less! To CNNs credit they did not report the name until it was confirmed
The mother, Nancy was a teacher at the school - Wrong, she apparently may have been a sub or an aide, but we don't even know that yet.
The mother was killed at the school in her classroom along with her kindergarden students. Wrong
Originally reported that children killed ranged from 6 to 10. - Wrong all were 6-7 year old kindergardners, I am sure that caused unnecessary panic for the parents of the ten year olds in the school.
The children were killed with handguns, the bushmaster rifle was found in his car. - Wrong - The coroner reported most, if not all, were killed with the rifle, apparently they are now reporting that the gun found in the car was a Russian shotgun, but who knows.
I am sure there were other erroneous reports in an effort to scoop the competition, but these are the ones I recall. I don't know how to remedy that, but it certainly causes people to jump to conclusions based on faulty information in the beginning. It might be prudent to just come on and say "there reportedly been a shooting in ........ and we will offer details as soon as they are released by the authorities". God bless the families of the victims and may the victims rest in peace.
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Yellow journalism at it's worst.
Today's media, whether it's newpapers, television or radio, doesn't give a darn about the facts...it's who breaks the story first.
As a former editor, I hang my head in shame...