So, I was working on this story:
Chinese Student Lu Lingzi, 23, Identified as
Third Victim Killed by Boston Marathon Bombing
When a certain blonde woman on cable TV news began informing me (and you and a lot of other people) that a suspect in the Boston marathon bombing had been identified from video. And I kept working on the story I was working on, because that’s what you do: Finish one story before starting another. Besides, after years in this business, I’ve gotten used to the rapid-fire breathless bulletins on TV news. It’s what they do, and their 24/7 urgency does not impose on me a necessity to react with panic.
But then the phone rang: “Are you watching this?”
Yeah, I said, I’m watching it, and I’ll get on it as soon as I finish the story I’m working on. The lunatic idea that we have to update faster than the Drudge Report, on a story that everybody in the freaking world is covering, is a misconception that needs to be explained, but I don’t have time for that today. As of this moment, here’s the headline:
BREAKING: FBI DENIES ARREST OF
BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT REPORTEDLY
IDENTIFIED FROM VIDEOS
Right now, I’m watching CNN, where Anderson Cooper is trashing the sources who gave him the bad tip. Here’s the FBI’s official denial. A press conference is scheduled at 5 p.m. ET. I’ve been tweeting my frustrations:
Dear TV News People: Thank you for getting everything completely wrong. Again. Signed, AMERICA
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 17, 2013
#BOSTON DAY 3: Overpaid cable TV news personalities mourn the tragic loss of what little credibility they ever had. @foxnews @cnn @msnbc
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 17, 2013
Shorter Cable TV News Today: “We don’t actually know anything yet, but we’ll be telling you more of what we don’t know in a few minutes.”
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 17, 2013
You’d think these people would learn something from this, but then I guess I still haven’t learned that “CNN reports” doesn’t really count for much . . .
Journalism and terrorism: Related phenomena? Discuss.
PREVIOUSLY:
- April 17: Pressure Cooker: In Hunt for Bombing Suspects, Speculation Runs Rampant
- April 16: Shorter @DylanByers: ‘Hurry Up, FBI, So We Can Start the Media Blame Game!’
- April 16: Terrorism, Journalism and Other Crimes of ‘Workplace-Related Violence’
- April 15: When You Report Breaking News, Be Like Joe Friday: ‘Just the Facts, Ma’am’
RT @smitty_one_each: TOM BREAKING: Cable TV News Airheads Screwed Up a Major Story, Again http://t.co/SqWYMme7G4 #TCOT
@smitty_one_each hard to report a real news story when your trained to report propaganda all the time.
RT @smitty_one_each: TOM BREAKING: Cable TV News Airheads Screwed Up a Major Story, Again http://t.co/SqWYMme7G4 #TCOT
Honestly, I see little benefit of a “24 Hour” news network.
Too much fluff and useless, inaccurate crap put out.
TELL US WHEN YOU KNOW A FACT !!!!
I have been doing a better job (and I am just a cow). Moo.
The difference between me and CNN: CNN gives only opinions; I give opinions, milk, butter and cheese. And my opinions are better. http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-leftist-media-in-anticipation-maybe.html
When do they start reporting on the gang rapes and cannibalism in Boston?
Oh, you didn’t know: that happens every day.
Class, what have the cable news people taught us today?
->Speed Kills
->There are various J-Schools that need to be burned
->The Make Believe Media can beclown themselves better than I ever could
So…. shouldn’t they be releasing the names of the sources that lied to them?
“I’m here in Boston in a boat rowing across the river of blood flowing from the victims of last Monday’s — ”
<small group of people wades through the shot right past the boat>
Just In —–
Judge Crater found alive !!! … or not
Professional media. Fact-checking. Multiple layers. Like an onion. Makes ya cry like an onion does, too…
They cut off the end of Days of Our Lives so ill informed NBC jackasses could blather on about NOTHING. Jackasses.
I stopped watching Fox News last year, stopped watching CNN sometime during Clinton/Lewinski and MSNVC (not a typo) never had a chance. I come here for my news and look out the window for the weather. I’m a much happier person.
At least when you’re done crying over an onion, you have chili. With these a$$clowns we just get sh*t passed off as filet mignon.
No, that’s Chicago. In Boston, it’s drunken brawls and attempted rape.
And when you say “various” you mean “all”, right?
Anderson Cooper seems to have really gone way off the deep end since Kathy Griffin sexually assaulted him on national TV.
No, wait. He was always that way…
Stacy’s coverage has been among the best – but just like Bob Knight’s excellent color basketball commentary, it won’t get him a contract offer from the networks, because he only posts when he has something to offer, like Knight.
But the most informative headline of the day was Ace’s “Nobody knows what the hell is going on in Boston” – by a long shot, and with a rim shot.
Pretty much… there might be one or tw– oh who am I kidding? “Kill ‘Em All!”
Cows don’t give butter or cheese. They do give the raw materials for same, however.
Your headline is quite redundant.
That is true, but I churn my own milk into butter and curdle my own milk into cheese.
And mass depression when the Pats and BoSox lose.
And public urination to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.