Boston bombing: Media haste makes mistakes

Over at the Christian Science Monitor, I explained that the rush to be first out the gate with coverage of the manhunt in Boston led to the media making some grievous errors.

The rush to report a piece of information first can lead to regrettable errors. Despite claims to have cross-checked information, even reputable news organizations can get important facts wrong in the scramble to be first out the gate with news. The initial reports about who the police were looking for turned out to be wrong. Thursday night’s revelation that the two suspects were actually young refugees from Chechnya showed just how wrong the initial speculation can be.

The authorities, on the other hand, have not misled the public. On the contrary, the Boston police and the <a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation>FBIdeserve tremendous praise for being restrained in their public statements, cautious about what they say in press conferences, and quick in identifying and locating the two alleged bombers. So relying on what officials say, rather than fast-breaking media segments, is a good way to stay ahead in the information game.

Read the whole thing over at the Christian Science Monitor.