Early News Media Reports Misidentify Brother As Connecticut Elementary School Shooter

COMMENTS (10)

• 1. They misidentified the maniac.
  2. He killed his mother in a classroom full of children then killed the children.
  3. Another person seen running from the scene was identified as the killer’s brother, then held for questioning.
  4. The killer’s father was found murdered.
  5. The mother bought the guns.
  6. The murderer killed his brother.
  7. A Prime Time reporter interviewed a little girl, found out her teacher calmly read them all THE NUTCRACKER during the slaughter, then he asked her: “Were you scared of the Rat King? – He scared me a lot!”
  8. A foreign reporter asked a police spokesman: “Is this the worst thing you’ve ever seen?”
  9. (And too many more to mention.)

  Really? – REALLY?

  The Major Networks/Cable news providers (and ALL online News media outlets) really need to take a step back and look at the job that was/is being done today and realize that news isn’t entertainment.

  It’s a responsibility.

  Comment by REPORTING GONE WRONG — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 7:37pm PST  Reply to this post

  • “news isn’t entertainment.”

    Are you sure?
    Why exactly do people obsess about “news”, 99,9 % of which doesn’t affect their lives at all? Mostly all they do with generally use-less information is talk about it around the water cooler where they try to sound smart. That’s entertainment.

    “It’s a responsibility”

    Boy, what century did you time-travel from? Personally, I appreciate the sentiment, don’t get me wrong. I wish there was such a thing as a sense of responsibility in media as well as politics. But that’s just wishful thinking. It’s a business, after all.

    Comment by A. M. — Saturday December 15, 2012 @ 1:53am PST  Reply to this post

    • A.M.-

      I hear your point, but I respectfully disagree.

      News shouldn’t be fashioned/follow the model of it being “entertainment.”

      It should be the delivery of information that’s as accurate and verified as it can be.

      “Water cooler” talk is one thing you can’t at all control.

      People’s opinions are their own and always will be.

      But if you tell 330m people (as a trusted information source) that black is white and hot is cold, you have a definite responsibility there to make sure that what you’re reporting is valid.

      If you’re playing the game “Telegraph”(where a bunch of people stand in a circle and the FIRST person whispers something into the ear of the person next to them and it gets passed around the circle until it comes back to “The Originating Source” to see how much it’s changed), you have a responsibility (as “The Originating Source”) to make sure that first sharing of information is cleanly delivered.

      If (as “The Originating Source” your original Message is: “I like milk!” but you say: “I like bikes” instead, you are SOLELY responsible for the misinformation that is shared.

      Who cares what “the people react to”?

      News reporting should be above that.

      Again, it’s a responsibility.

      Would you trust your life in the hands of a heart surgeon who got all their information from “crowd opinions”?

      Probably not.

      Comment by REPORTING GONE WRONG — Saturday December 15, 2012 @ 4:34pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Thank you for saying that more politely than I ever could have.
    Everything I thought I knew about this (short of dead kids in a school), was wrong.
    This is not Fox News, either. These were trusted sources, and they let us ALL down.
    First is better than accurate.

    Comment by Gary Alexander — Saturday December 15, 2012 @ 7:40am PST  Reply to this post

• Ryan Lanza can now sue 20 different news media outlets for a million dollars each. With the right lawyer he’s going to make a fast $10 million each network will settle for $500,000. Go get ‘em Ryan teach ‘em a lesson. They will argue that they were only reporting what the police told them but they had no right to lift his Facebook profile and show his picture everywhere. He was definitely defamed during the hunt for news scoops.

  Comment by Anonymous — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 7:47pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Ok I can see that happening, but he can only live with that if he donates the majority of the money to the victim’s families and selects representation that promises to do like wise.

    Comment by Phil — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 11:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• Welcome to the non-stop news cycle. I don’t even believe today’s screw-ups were the result of news organizations rushing to be first with any particular information. (often the culprit) The problem is that they have absolutely NOTHING to say and feel they must feed their anchors something, anything.

  Comment by Promo guy — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 8:51pm PST  Reply to this post

• What Media Matters fan wrote this post up?

  The shooter’s brother’s name was reported as the shooter all over the place.

  Comment by Wow — Friday December 14, 2012 @ 9:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• To me what’s really sickening is the the fact that the media is making this tragedy a political issue while bodies are still in the school. For those of us who know Newtown and its citizens well, the turning of victims into pawns for the sake of an agenda is nothing short of nauseating.

  Comment by Sean — Saturday December 15, 2012 @ 8:03am PST  Reply to this post

• Interesting that Americans will believe anything the news media reports of what happens around the world when they’re more likely to get the facts wrong and don’t have to worry about being wrong. I remember reading a quote from a journalist telling China if they want accurate reporting about China, they should allow the Western media to go anywhere they want. That’s basically an admission they make up stuff when they don’t know the facts.

  Comment by Sacramento — Saturday December 15, 2012 @ 12:37pm PST  Reply to this post