The other day CNN made a huge "exclusive" announcement that there had been an arrest made in the Boston bombings. An hour later, they announced that the FBI had just released a statement saying that they would appreciate it if the media would vet their sources before releasing statements, because there had not been an arrest made. I was on Twitter and suddenly there was a flurry of activity of people trashing CNN's horrible reporting!
- So now,
#CNN says possibly definitely not yes maybe there hasn't been an arrest or not. Ha.#breakingnews stories are irritating.
ChickOpinion 
RT@intelwire: My sources are telling me the bomber definitely has skin.
Andrew Kaczynski 
- I think
#CNN should pluck daisy petals: "There has been an arrest, there has been an arrest not..."#broadcastnewsfail#CNNReporting
Where was Lennay Kekua on Monday afternoon?
Scott Conroy 
Armchair Quarterback 
I understand that reporting on a "breaking news" story is complicated because you're always getting new information. But, since the CNN fiasco on Wednesday, all reporters on all networks have been saying things like, "We don't want to give you false information, so we won't give you specifics until we check the facts again." Why didn't they do that in the first place?
Not only has the media been rushing information, they haven't exactly been comforting during this time of unsettlement. I know that it's not media's job to sugarcoat everything, but I don't like feeling like I've just gone into an action movie when I turn on the news. Here are some of the headlines that the usually laid-back ABC has used this week:
On Monday night, the title "Terror at the Boston Marathon" was said in one of those movie announcer voices. It was so unsettling! I felt like they were drawing a little bit of the wrong kind of feelings to the story. It was not a feeling of tragedy; it was like an action movie.
Yesterday morning and this morning the GMA headlines were also read like movie titles. It felt incredibly creepy. Yes, the headlines are accurate, but do they evoke the right kind of feelings that tragedies like these should evoke in people?
Both the President of the U.S. and the Governor of Massachusetts spoke yesterday about pulling together as a country and a community to get through this crisis (as well as, of course, the crisis in Texas). The media is not making me feel the same way the president and governor did yesterday. I do not feel reassured with "TERROR" in all-caps. Sure, it's accurate, but the media also has the opportunity and responsibility to decide how they are going to make the public feel. I don't like feeling on edge all the time, and I feel like that's where the media is taking us.
So, kudos to the reporters and anchors who have stayed strong through all of this. Thank you for being (mostly) reliable and working through the nights to keep us up to date on everything that's going on. To the public, I think we need to remember the people who were killed in the bombings and the officer who was killed last night in the shootout in Boston, as well as the people who were killed in Texas. We need to make sure that we keep this in perspective.
Stay safe. Stay strong.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi
I agree--these headlines can really get to us if we let them. However, I argue that if we maintain our center from within, the FEAR can't reach us. Love and compassion for all trumps fear everytime! I choose to live in LIGHT and LOVE!
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