Posted on 01/11/2011 11:24:09 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
National Public Radio yesterday detailed the chain of events that led the news organization to wrongly report that Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had died in Saturday’s shooting rampage, and said it is considering new safeguards regarding the deaths of public officials.
“NPR follows a basic two-source rule when reporting that someone has died. In this case, we followed the two-source rule, but the sources were not as optimal as desired. Also, we did not cite our sources,” spokeswoman Anna Christopher said. “We’re not changing our policy, but we will reinforce best practices going forward.”
NPR was the first of several major media outlets, including Fox, CBS, NBC and CNN, to report the congresswoman had died.
The very first tweet that said Giffords had been killed originated in Boston and was sent out at 2:02 p.m. by Andrew Phelps, an online reporter for NPR station WBUR-FM (90.9).
Phelps said yesterday that he waited to hear NPR say that Giffords had died a second time before he tweeted the news on WBUR’s Twitter account.
When it came to light that NPR’s information was wrong, Phelps said he followed up with “factually accurate” tweets.
In an online piece detailing their mistake, NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard said NPR broke the story that an Arizona congresswoman had been shot at 1:01 p.m. Saturday after getting a tip from the wife of Arizona Public Media’s news director — who was at the shopping center where the shooting occurred.................
Go!
You don’t let a tragedy go to waste.
The bigger the tragedy the bigger the change you can push.
This shooting had the chance, or so it seemed, to stunt the new tea party infused congress, shut down fox news, and stop Sarah Palin’s career all in one shot.
Turns out these guys haven’t adapted to the new media age where what would have taken sometime to all get on message for the evening stories and next day editorial pages way too many tweets and blog postings went out clearly showing an eagerness to exploit the incident.
Isn't that what Dan Rather said?
This "error" doesn't sound like an error. It sounds like they wanted to hype it. Everything the MSM has done, has been done to benefit their political beliefs while throwing dirt on their political opposition.
...and they want to limit our speech?
Correct.
It’s called lying.
What if Fox “Faux” News had sent that tweet?
Gracious!
Good one.
They sure showed everyone how they do it with Juan Williams.
Keep telling Congress to do that.
The race to be the first one with the most dire news, wins. Right NPR?
“NPR was the first of several major media outlets, including Fox, CBS, NBC and CNN, to report the congresswoman had died.”
Each of these “news” organizations should be ashamed of themselves.
They had no excuse whatsoever to report that Giffords had died.
If NPR was not defunded when the GOP controlled the White House, the House and Senate, they will not be defunded in today’s Washington.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0111/Eyewitness_Giffords_conscious_after_shooting.html
True. Doesn’t help that they have been given plenty of ammo by conservatives who seem to forget that words can be taken out of context by others.
That’s what I was thinking. How could they think her dead? Someone just jumped to a “conclusion? On a two-source rule? Sounds more like a surge of adrenalin in the rush to demonize talk radio, the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, the Right, free speech........
I’ve watched a man on the news describe how he went to her, lifted her up, talked with her, attended her wound, assured her he’s notify her family, etc. and it certainly sounded like she would not have seemed “dead.”
They’ll make something up if they can’t take something out of context.
Lies are their stock in trade.
So, it is your view that CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox are simply lemmings that followed NPR off a cliff?
Those other “news” outlets need to take responsibity for their actions.
“The very first tweet that said Giffords had been killed originated in Boston and was sent out at 2:02 p.m. by Andrew Phelps, an online reporter for NPR station WBUR-FM (90.9).”
Tweets aren’t for kids...twerps.
Nor are they reliable.
However, that’s the state that the LSM is in now...
OT...Phelps?
“...NPR broke the story that an Arizona congresswoman had been shot at 1:01 p.m. Saturday after getting a tip from the wife of Arizona Public Media’s news director — who was at the shopping center where the shooting occurred.”
A friend of a friend told me to stay away from NPR
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