As more and more news trickled out, my stomach churned with sad disbelief and helpless anger. By now you should be well aware of what transpired in the classrooms and hallways of Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was a sickening display of violence most of us would have a hard time even imagining, let alone carrying out.
While Twitter and related social media outlets have definitely carved out a niche in the modern world of reporting the news, it doesn’t come without its flaws. Misinformation can spread very fast. Suddenly people far removed from the scene are the ones determining what is or is not valid enough information to relay back to their followers.
The hours following the attack were a time of mass confusion, as pure speculation began to be reported as fact on such crucial details as the identity of the gunman and the number of victims. People with a history of using Twitter as an effective tool for disseminating information, like NPR’s Andy Carvin, introduced such details like mysterious purple van being spotted near the school, multiple bodies found at the home of the shooter’s mother and even that the shooter’s brother had been found dead. All of which could be viewed by his over 81,000 followers. All of which, were patently false.
The problem was that Carvin was in Washington D.C. at the time of the shooting, 300 miles away from what he was “reporting” on. This could have fooled CNN, who Carvin claims tried to get him on the air after reading his tweets, thinking he was on the scene. Several other major outlets would learn the same lesson after they mistakenly reported the shooter’s name as “Ryan Lanza.” This would be proven false, as the gunman was eventually identified Ryan’s brother, Adam.
This of course didn’t stop those very same websites, and eventually CNN, from running screenshots of Ryan’s Facebook account. Some speculated, “Is this the killer?” Others condemned, “This is the killer.”
Why was there no restraint? Why were so many outlets like Buzzfeed and Gawker – websites not primarily known for their ability to break news in real time – so quick to jump on board with whatever information was being pushed to them? Why is it more important to get it first, rather than to get it right?
For example, following Hurricane Sandy’s arrival on the New York-New Jersey metro area, an account began maliciously spreading rumors of people trapped in elevators, that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange had flooded and that ConEd had cut power to all of Manhattan. These tweets were reported by credible news outlets who simply regurgitated someone’s report at face value rather than attempting to verify it independently.
We should be thankful no one was sick enough to wantonly spread lies during the Sandy Hook tragedy; however, I am not naïve enough to think it couldn’t happen in the future.
The world of reporting the news is a garbage industry insomuch that someone usually has to be willing to get their hands dirty to find out what is really going on. No one reporting much of what was going on was doing that. They likely sat in an office chair looking for whatever emotionally-jarring picture or factoid they could excavate from the panic. This kind of “off-the-ground” reporting exacerbated an already horrible situation, and scared many more people in the process.
One thing we should not lose sight of following the events of December 14 was that it wasn’t even the first mass shooting in this country that week. Just two days earlier, a man opened fire in an Oregon shopping mall, killing three people, including himself. That story was on full rotation with the constantly-running news organizations until unspeakable evil reared its ugly head in Connecticut.
Suddenly, the loss of life in a shooting on the West Coast became an afterthought to FOX, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and the litany of other outlets so desperate to “get an exclusive” that they actually had children from the school being interviewed for a global audience. This was presumably done by reporters who should have known better than to put a grade-schooler on national television and hope for any kind of insight.
As we move forward towards even more radical changes for the way tragedies are covered in the media, we must take note that there are no dress rehearsals. There are no “practice tragedies.” We in the media must take full responsibility for things we report in times of crisis. Because I know that as I sat here last week in horrified disbelief, I hung on every word.
