charlesboyer's blog

say it ain't so: the media got it all wrong (as usual) covering the ft hood shootings

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 Last night, right-wing blogger (and law professor) Glenn Reynolds promoted this media analysis from right-wing blogger (and Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney) Patterico regarding coverage of the Fort Hood shootings. 

The New York Times' Robert Mackey did an equally comprehensive job of live-blogging the media reports, and his contemporaneous compilation reflects many of these same glaring errors in the coverage:  "CNN reports that two military sources say that the second gunman at Fort Hood is 'cornered' . . . Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told Fox 4 News in Texas that one shooter was in custody and 'another is still at large' . . . CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports that 12 people have been killed and up to 30 wounded. One of the dead is said to have been one of the gunmen. . . . Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, just revealed that earlier reports that the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Hasan, had been killed were incorrect. Major Hasan was wounded but remains alive."

Perhaps most irresponsible of all is the unverified claim that Hasan had written on the Internet in defense of suicide attacks by Muslims, even though the origins of those writings are entirely unverified.  Similarly, certain news organizations -- like NPR -- used anonymous sources to disseminate inflammatory claims about Hasan's prior troubles allegedly grounded in activism on behalf of Islam.  Much of this may turn out to be true once verified, or it may not be, but all of the conflicting, unverified claims flying around last night enabled many people to exploit the "facts" they selected in order to create whatever storyline that suited them and their political preconceptions -- and many, of course, took vigorous advantage of that opportunity.

-- Glenn Greenwald

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 Basically, Greenwald has done a good job using sources from both ends of the political spectrum that point out the same thing: the media filled the space in between events with shoddy reporting and speculation disguised as fact.  That they one again committed a number of egregious errors is not surprising, nor is it surprising that now, after the initial story is winding down, they are covering their tracks using the trick of republishing corrected stories at the same web address with no mention of their earlier mistakes.  That erases their blunders, and is essentially the same thing as fixing wrong test answers once the test is over and writing down the  "corrected" answers as their grade.

We have seen this before and we will see it again.  Starting with 9/11, every time an event happens the media tries to one up each other with new elements to the event, but in their rush, they either accidentally or deliberately fail to confirm what they are reporting as actual fact.

That is understandable, as sometimes honest reporters are given wrong information, even by official sources.  But official sources are like any other source from a journalistic point of view; they must be verified to be accurate before they are reportable.  That the media is failing to do this consistently proves that it is not journalism they are conducting, but instead some form of ratings gamesmanship in order to grab viewers.  That is a disservice to the public and runs completely against the grain of their supposed standards.

The next time something as horrific as Fort Hood takes place, one would be wise to remember the lessons of the past: what you are hearing is probably wrong and misleading.  Don't buy into it without hearing the story verified.

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