Boston bombings reveal the many mistakes journalists make during a crisis

In the wake of all the false or misleading news reports on Monday about the Boston Marathon bombings – inaccuracies that were quickly spread far and wide by Facebook and Twitter – Slate has taken a close look at how journalists (and political junkies) should handle themselves during a crisis.

Slate’s Dave Weigel was the first to weigh in shortly after the bombings occurred:

“My heart goes out to the people killed or maimed in Boston today, and to their loved ones. In a situation like this, political reporters should probably make a quiet, temporary exit from the scene. There will be political angles in the reaction to this story, because this sort of nightmare knocks everything else out of the news cycle. Gosnell? Manchin-Toomey? Immigration? They're in the middle of the paper if they're anywhere. They're paused, as is any speculation about the motivation for the attack. Who has ever speculated about that and not gone on to total, moronic infamy?”

Slate’s social media editor, Jeremy Stahl, followed up with a thoughtful piece on mistakes too many journalists make during a crisis.
The mistakes yesterday were many: the “bomb” at the JFK Library; the two/three/four other “bombs” found; the shutdown of cell towers in Boston by authorities in order to prevent remote bomb detonations; the suspect who was “in custody” at a Boston hospital.

That last inaccuracy was propped up by Rep. Mike McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. McCaul and a few other members of Congress contributed to the confusion by telling cable TV outlets more than they actually knew as fact.

At one point, McCaul told Fox News that reports of ball bearings embedded within the bombs indicated that the explosives were similar to those used in IEDs by Middle Eastern terrorists.

Even a casual observer of the news (let alone the top lawmaker on homeland security measures) could instantly tell the difference between the explosions caught on video in Boston and the countless videos we’ve seen of massive IED explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stahl suggests that those on Twitter not use an incident like what happened in Boston to make jokesabout how Republicans are going to blame Obama for this, or Democrats will point fingers at congressional GOP leadership.

“… Don’t use a tragedy to make a political point before the facts are even known. Shortly after the attacks, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted this inanity: “explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment.” Probably realizing how his snarkiness sounded under the circumstances, Kristof quickly deleted the tweet and called it a ‘low blow.’ On the right, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin sent out a doozy, comparing the national media’s coverage of Boston to its alleged non-coverage of the Kermit Gosnell abortion-murder case.”

On Facebook, some of the vile, tasteless attempts at scoring political points in the midst of an unfolding national tragedy were unforgiveable. I know I will be spending part of my day “unfriending” some FB freaks.