Media: Playing Up Terror Too Much?

Well, this week has been a doosie! And the media has been right there to help us through it. Well...maybe the media didn't exactly help us through it, but it was there.

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!

1. ChickOpinion ‏@ChickOpinion17 Apr

   So now, #CNN says possibly definitely not yes maybe there hasn't been an arrest or not. Ha. #breakingnews stories are irritating.

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   11:45 AM - 17 Apr 13 from Ohio, US · Details

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   Andrew Kaczynski ‏@BuzzFeedAndrew17 Apr

   RT @intelwire: My sources are telling me the bomber definitely has skin.

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   11:47 AM - 17 Apr 13 · Details

1. ChickOpinion ‏@ChickOpinion17 Apr

   I think #CNN should pluck daisy petals: "There has been an arrest, there has been an arrest not..." #broadcastnewsfail #CNNReporting

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   11:52 AM - 17 Apr 13 from Ohio, US · Details

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   Scott Conroy ‏@RealClearScott17 Apr

   Where was Lennay Kekua on Monday afternoon?

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   11:58 AM - 17 Apr 13 · Details

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   Armchair Quarterback ‏@Armchair_QBs17 Apr

   #CNN reports the #Jets are Superbowl favorites.

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   12:27 PM - 17 Apr 13 · Details

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

Boston

The bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday were horrific. I never thought I'd see footage like that in my entire life. The images coming out of Boston looked like they were from a war zone. I felt so sad seeing something so joyful turn into an afternoon of pain and suffering.

Twitter was swamped with people sending thoughts and prayers to Boston. "#PrayForBoston" and "#BostonMarathon" were trending within minutes. Twitter was also swamped with people starting to play the blame game. Muslims were upset because "#Muslims" was on the national trend list. A tweet that I saw said, "Did #WhiteBoy trend when Lanza was caught in December?" Another one read, "Anyone who thinks that Muslims are responsible for this obviously forget McVeigh. #shame #RememberOKC."

One of the people I follow on Twitter, an army wife from Colorado Springs, said that she was tired of people blaming "her American people" for the bombing and she wanted an apology from ABC, NBC, and CBS. I asked her what she meant (I'd been watching all of those, as well as FOX, to try to get all the information) because I didn't understand. She said that those three networks had already said it was the "conservative right" that was to blame. I disagreed with this, seeing as I had been watching those for the last hour and had heard nothing of the sort, but I thought her reaction was a perfect example of the way people react in the wake of tragedies like this: they don't want it to be one of "their" people and they take everything they hear and twist it to fit what they need to hear at that time. It's easier to blame some other group, some other skin color, some other country. I don't fault this woman for her initial reaction; it was a horrible day and our gut reactions are not always the most reasonable. I wrote back to her saying that I hope it's not someone identified with a particular party, too.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, a professional dancer on the hit TV show "Dancing with the Stars," tweeted, "Hard to dance on [a] day like today, but I hope we'll show whomever is responsible for #bostonbombing that we're stronger and unaffected!" I really do think that the show must go on and it's important that we get together and stay strong. But unaffected? No. We must allow ourselves to be affected by this event to ensure that we do come out the other side stronger.

So. I am not a fan of blaming people. I know that other people are. Some of the most popular people to blame for the Boston bombings have been President Obama, Muslims in general, and terrorists. But is it the right time? I feel like I did after the tragedy at Sandy Hook: is right now the appropriate time to talk about what our government "should have" done? While I understand that we will absolutely need to discuss this, are the first 24 hours the right time?

For now, let's hug our relatives, help out strangers, and pray for the victims of the bombings in Boston. If we allow ourselves to start blaming each other and arguing about who the "mastermind" behind all of this was, it doesn't matter who the person who did this is: they have already won. If we allow them to bomb our cities, turn us against each other, and break our collective resolve, they win.

We cannot let them win. We must find the person who did this and bring them to justice. And we must work together.

Stay safe. Stay strong.

"Be the change you wish to be in the world." --Gandhi