A survey of any major domestic tragedy of the past 25 years will turn up numerous examples of stellar news reportage. But combine the 24/7 news cycle with an industry culture often predicated on scooping the competition, and the news media is bound to get things flat out wrong, especially during a crisis when that self-imposed pressure to publish first ramps up.
The drawbacks stemming from that impulse have surfaced in coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. While The Boston Globe is already reaping laurels by underlining why local coverage remains relevant, other news outlets have churned up resentment over the tendency by some reporters to rush into the information vacuum to serve up any tidbit of information as the gospel truth.
Delving into chaos demands a particular type of resolve. Journalists have the thankless task of trying to balance the drive to “get the story” with the knowledge that crisis reporting has ramifications go far beyond the he-said-she-said grind of daily journalism. Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma turns to reporters and journalism professors to breakdown the ways rushed crisis reporting can go terribly wrong and how to get it right.
Mother Jones has taken up the cudgel against false reports by cataloguing some of the initial erroneous stories. The most egregious of these was the New York Post’s report that 12 people had been killed in the explosions and that a “Saudi national” had been taken into custody, both of which proved to be untrue. It led Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy to tweet, “If you are passing along speculation from the NY Post, don’t let me find out about it.”
The cause of the fire at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library also ping-ponged back and forth for hours between reports of a mechanical fire and an incendiary device, abetted by Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis who misspoke at a Monday news conference about such a device. The incident remains under investigation.
“It’s a perpetual lesson of past tragedies: Don’t trust what you hear or read early on,” said Andy Koll, a Mother Jones journalist who also compiled a list of initial reports from past terrorist attacks and shootings that turned out to be baseless, such as a fire on the National Mall and a car bombing at the State Department during the September 11 attacks.
The New York Post’s death toll snafu led American Prospect writer Paul Waldman to opine that the urge scoop competitors during a crisis is hugely misplaced. Reporters should focus instead on getting it right and moving audiences closer to what he terms “true understanding.” Besides, in real time, no one outside the news media else cares anyway. “Scoops are beside the point,” said Waldman. “When Americans are looking to learn about and understand this kind of horrible event, they don’t care whether you got a scoop.”
During a crisis, the twitterverse is a petri dish of misinformation and the marathon bombing was no exception. Slate’s Jeremy Stahl, who pled guilty to retweeting the erroneous death toll information, passes along on-point suggestions for crisis reporting from George W. Bush’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer.
The rush to be first with developments in the bombing caused tempers to run short on Capitol Hill, prompting one Washington lawmaker with recent crisis experience to issue this well-deserved rebuke, “I just think everybody, including everybody in the press, needs to chill out here,” US Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said Monday. “Let the investigators do their work.”
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
MARATHON BOMBINGS
The Globe has this overview of the state of the investigation.
The Boston Marathon’s reach could be seen in all the local angles to the tragedy pursued by the state’s newspapers. The Eagle-Tribune reports that at least seven local runners or spectators were injured in the blasts. The Newburyport News interviews three medical volunteers who rushed toward the bombs. The Lowell Sun writes about Sydney Corcoran, a Lowell High School senior who watching her aunt run the race when the bombs went off. Corcoran was the woman in the Globe’s front-page photo on Tuesday, on her back with two strangers applying pressure to wounds on her legs. The Salem News writes about a father and son injured while they waited for their wife/mothers to cross the finish line. The Item profiles an off-duty Lynn firefighter who helped the wounded by making tourniquets out of belts and shoe strings.
Perhaps the only silver lining to a bomb attack on the Boston Marathon: It happens in a city with some of best hospitals in the world.
Peter Gelzinis speaks to Steve Lynch and Ayanna Pressley about Dorchester’s Richard family. Martin Richard and the other victims were remembered at vigils throughout the region last night.
Time offers some insights on the FBI agent in charge of the bombing investigation, Richard DesLauriers.
Dennis Lehane pens a love letter to Boston in the Times.
Slate combs through the FBI’s list of recent bomb plots and threats and comes away terrified.
The Museum of Fine Arts and Institute of Contemporary Art opened their doors for free yesterday in response to Monday’s bombing. “Ours is the opposite of canceling,” said MFA director Malcolm Rogers. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is following their lead today.
Politics is put on hold — for now.
Family Guy pulls Boston episode, CBS News reports.
BEACON HILL
The former head of the state Probation Department, John O’Brien, was acquitted on state conspiracy charges related to the patronage scandal in the department. He still faces federal trial on racketeering and mail fraud charges.
Where have all the anti-tax advocates in Massachusetts gone, and are they needed anymore? CommonWealth asks.
MUNICIPALITIES
The Lawrence City Council renews the licenses of eight taxi and livery companies, but admonishes them for their rude and reckless drivers, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, is sent a letter containing the poison ricin, NPR reports (via WBUR).
The New York Times goes looking for guns on the internet.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoes a union labor bill, the Star-Ledger reports.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Atlantic goes all Krugman-y on deficits and austerity.
HEALTH CARE
Nevada’s state psychiatric hospital has put more than 1,500 patients on Greyhound buses over the last five years and sent them to cities and towns across the country, Governing reports.
Congressional Republicans say the FDA should have acted years sooner to close down the Framingham drug compounding pharmacy at the center of the scandal over tainted drug products.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A delegation of state, business, and local officials from New Bedford is heading to Europe later this month to learn more about the wind power industry in hopes of spurring a wind-power manufacturing sector on the South Coast.
MEDIA
New Bedford native David Barboza won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work as Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times.