Wednesday, April 17, 2013

What's Wrong with US Media, Part 5,439,826

Just now on HuffPo...

Says all that needs saying, doesn't it?

Update: The humiliation of a journalistic reputation...

Wednesday afternoon has seen a flurry of contradictory reports about the status of an alleged suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, but for the past hour or so, CNN has been going all-in with sources that said an arrest had already been made. A few minutes ago, though, CNN’s chyron went from “Sources: Arrest In Boston Bombing” to “Defcon: Oh, Crap,” as CNN contributor Tom Fuentes came on the air to tell Anderson Cooper that two “highly-placed sources” say there has been no arrest, followed by Fran Townsend reporting that “two administration officials” have confirmed that there has been no arrest.

[...]

It’s still possible that CNN’s first source was correct, but if their reporting on the arrest turns out to have been positively wrong, it will be a black eye that makes their SCOTUS decision flub feel like a backrub. With the Boston Police Dept. now refuting even CNN’s local sources, that appears likely now.

Update II: The excruciating play-by-play.

2 comments:

Gadfly said...

Per a story last week, I Tweeted AP asking if the "suspect" in non-custody was an "illegal immigrant" or not.

Greg said...

The goal of getting it first has eclipsed the goal of getting it right in our 24 hour news cycle.