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Brian Ross hinted at a possible link this morning on Good Morning America. The shooting suspect’s name is Jim Holmes and there is “a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado page on the Colorado Tea Party site… talking about him joining the Tea Party last year.” Ross warned that “we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.” Afterward the news unit said that the linkage was “incorrect” according to web site Politico, but it added: “Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect.” ABC News said in a story on its website that it and Ross “apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
ABC News Apologizes For Erroneously Linking Suspected Shooter To Tea Party
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Oh, ABC, stepped into it again, huh?
Right! Exactly! ABC apologized???…..Too little, too late. Ross and Stefanopoulus SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY, PERIOD!!!!!
No! Do not fire them, we need them to continue to make ABC look as they do! Non-leaders in the national news business! Keeping them both helps Fox News continue to be #1!
Really? Network news made an erroneous statement. That’s a first.
Does anyone find it eerie that this all happens (including the ABC news snafu) following the most recent Newsroom episode?
This is our news media folks. Jumping to conclusions before properly vetting the facts. (rolls eyes)
I Googled the name “Brian Ross”.
Man….that guy has committed a ton of crimes….and all across the USA too!
How sad that people will take advantage of a tragedy to push an agenda.
Shame on them.
To paraphrase thelkine in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence”, “When the narrative advances your agenda, you lead with the narative.”
The apology does not matter. All they care about is making the Tea Party look bad. As much as I dislike both Romney, the Tea Party and Obama, there is no way the statement can be undone. It served its purpose of vilifying these people. Its almost as sickening as the tragedy itself.
The Tea Party doesn’t need any help looking bad. That said, it was ridiculous and irresponsible for a respectable (hah) newsprogram to air such blatant speculation and call it news.
Good point; like a lawyer making a purposely damaging statement in an open courtroom that he or she knows the judge will immediately order stricken from the record – the damage is already done because the jury heard it.
Brian Ross, Georgie Steph and ABC led the way, and the other media was sitting on their hands to see the reaction ABC got.
ALL of them did the same thing when Gabby Giffords was shot and other people (who the media chose the ignore) were killed.
this is journalism? what used to be a respectable field is becoming irresponsible.
Becoming?
Brian Ross is one of the WORST reporters of all time. This is hardly the first instance where he’s jumped to a ridiculous conclusion about something — which, by the way, is apropos of nothing in the first place — and then had to eat crow later.
He tries to be sensational and act like he’s breaking major stories, but he really is often just reporting unverified innuendo.
He was bad at NBC; he’s equally bad at ABC. I don’t know why he still has a job.
An apology should come from the person who erred from the same platform. An “oops, someone’s bad” just doesn’t seem to do it. Mr. Ross, consider an on air mea culpa.
What is unfortunate is that Ross like so many
Network talking heads allow their Democratic Obama leanings influence what is supposed to be non partisan reporting..
Two words: yellow journalism. Edward R. Murrow would be rolling in his grave if he knew how far journalistic standards have fallen.
Amen. Mr. Buckingham waved that flag back in 2003.
While working as the Director of Engineering for an NBC affiliate in the 1990′s I attended my first RTNDA conference. Part of the event was an evening awards show where the “Edward R. Murrow” award was presented. One of the news directors I was seated with asked my what I thought of the award. My comment back to him was that I found it interesting that the highest award in television journalism is named after a journalist that no television station would hire today. In the 2 decades since that event, things have certainly gotten worse.
This is really irresponsible reporting by ABC. Notice how they never made a mistake and linked this guy to Democrats. I wonder why?
The incorrectly named guy has reportedly had to disconnect his phone after getting ceaseless threatening calls. He ought to sue Ross and ABC for all they are worth.
Wow, what a boneheaded move by ABC. I guess today has been miserable for that innocent Jim Holmes.
It’s a byproduct of the Internet Age — far too many reporters/journalists/bloggers want to beat everyone else to “the story”, and hence the tendency to take rumor mill, unverified reports, and wild speculation and present them to the public as the result of “investigative reporting”.
Until a thorough investigation has been done, it would be premature to speculate on the motivations of this deranged individual that led to this horrific act.
labman57 is quite on target. It’s all about getting there first these days — because if YOU don’t do it, someone else will, and the requisite fall out from listeners/readers/viewers/advertisers will follow. I think many would rather apologize later than take the time it takes (and yes, it DOES take time) to properly vet all reports. While I do not wish for a return to the olden days in a LOT of ways, I DO wish for a return to decent standards of journalism. Most TRY to do the right thing, but the pressures from above and outside are enormous, and we get these unintentional consequences from the race to be first with the story.
I’m IN the media, yet I was once caught in the middle of a firestorm, and I was appalled by the tactics used by (mostly)
on-air talkshows and “news” magazines to try to bait me so they could get a juicy quote. I was embarrassed for my own profession.
So it’s okay to deliberately do the exact opposite of your job, as long as you apologize later? Noted.
“Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect.”
What is the point of that statement? Does ABC want to reassure us that they’re not directly responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened?
The news media is so quick to blame Tea Party or responsible gun owners for a senseless tragedy like this by someone who is obviously crazy. Let focus in what’s important and pray for the victims and their family and friends. Good job by the police and emergency responders who arrived so fast to help.
Not a real apology
Completely irresponsible of Ross. The race to be first with news is ridiculous. How about being correct?
It’s a shame that this tragic and horrible event will be politicized. The left will use it to pummel the right, and the right will use it to pummel the left.
Conspiracy theorists will have a field day on the right. “This was staged CLOSE TO AN ELECTION to take our guns away!”
On the left they’ll be screaming to take everyone’s guns away, as if that will solve the problem of a determined mass murderer.
The reality is, America loves guns, always has. It’s part of the culture dating back to the revolutionary war when people took up arms against King George’s Colonial troops. We solve everything with guns. It’s how we roll, culturally, and its reflected in our entertainment.
There’s no easy answers. But I do know this–this man is a serial killer. They come in all shapes and stripes. Who cares what his “message” was– whether its messages from Mars or he loves/hates Batman or think Obama is the savior/Antichrist. He’s a SERIAL KILLER.
Should you – or should you not – report leads? Isn’t that the question? It’s not like any of the other news outlets aren’t in the same position. It seems to me that this phenomenon occurred when the 24 hour news channels turned up in order to maintain a steady stream of content. Technically, as cable channels, they’re not subject to the FCC are they?
Not enough news? Leads and discussion of the leads – becoming apocryphal self-fulfilling viral prophesy – are now the norm in terms of the volume of such on television. Network news – having been put in the position to compete in this new universe – were forced to follow suit. FOX News is the master of this but it’s not like MSNBC hasn’t found itself phoning in the shrill and unverified. That is IF in fact Ross was being irresponsible in the first place. He posited a hypothetical yet to be verified – he presented the facts such as they are at the moment when it was prudent to do so.
This is incompetence. Period. As a former journalist, anyone in that field is taught from day one to confirm your information before you report it. ABC’s newsroom should be ashamed of itself. Not sure that they are since they relish smearing people who disagree with them. Their apologies are virtually meaningless these days.
I will never watch ABC news again if they don’t let Brian Ross go. What a irresponsible jerk.
I work for an ABC station and I am a Tea Party member. This kind of reporting is appalling to me. Just tell it like it is.