MMMM #60 - Impeachable Sources

What can you say about a TV news operation that would take supposed information directly off a police scanner and put it on air....especially when the information was shaky from the start?

(Presidential Press Secretary) Robert Hughes sharply criticized the news media for "reporting [that] was based on listening to a police scanner" and was not "verified" before being broadcast.

Yea, that's about it. The incident happened on Friday in D.C. during the annual ceremonies commemorating 9-11. President Obama was nearby. The Coast Guard was conducting a training exercise (perhaps not the best choice of a date to do so, but that's another story), a voice on the the police radio goes "bang, bang!", simulating gunfire, and that's enough to get some assignment desk person or producer to manufacture it all into a story on two major cable networks. Whew. Read the Washington Post's story here. The event caused some soul-searching among journalism organizations...as it should! Virtually all newsrooms monitor police scanners..they are part of the general ambiance of the news environment*. Yet in some cities, police have started scrambling their radio traffic. Orlando started early last year. And I understand Montgomery, Alabama will start soon. There are legitimate reasons to scramble, and legitimate journalistic concerns too...but I kinda wish the U.S. Coast Guard had scrambled it's signals Friday morning. And I'll bet CNN does too. And FOX too, which followed CNN into the abyss. FOX said on air it had "learned" about the Coast Guard shooting at a private boat. Wonder who their teacher was? [*ADDENDUM: One of the first impressions I had of the APT newsroom when I arrived for the job interview in 1997 was how utterly quiet it was. The absence of a police scanner was a part of that quiet (Not too much ambulance chasing going in back then.) So was the lack of yelling and screaming, but that's another story.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]