The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

#NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You

Posted on | September 16, 2013 | 46 Comments

We’ve seen this pattern over and over, from 9/11 to the Boston Marathon bombings: New breaks, cable TV and online sources fill up with “confirmed” reports and various thinly-sourced rumors that later prove to be false or irrelevant. The urgency of media trying to be first to report new tidbits of information in real time creates a blizzard of confusing and contradictory “facts” which may not be facts at all.

Police search for active shooter on grounds
of Washington Navy Yard in Southeast D.C.
— Washington Post

Four Dead Among 10 Shot at D.C. Navy Yard;
At Least 1 Shooter Still At Large
— NBC News

What is important as a news consumer in such a situation is to be patient, to realize that what’s happening at the scene is going to happen independent of what is said on cable TV or on the Internet. We cannot influence events, and yet the BREAKING NEWS banners on cable TV make us feel a sense of involvement, so that you may get emotionally distraught simply because you don’t know what is actually happening.

Patience. By this time tomorrow, the identity of the shooter or shooters, the motive, and the names of the victims will all be known.

 

Category: Crime, Journalism, Military, Terrorism

Comments

46 Responses to “#NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You”

  1. Wolf308
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:03 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/j5wEa9qnKY #TCOT

  2. CatholicLisa
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:04 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/j5wEa9qnKY #TCOT

  3. rsmccain
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:06 pm

    #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  4. avedisremo
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/j5wEa9qnKY #TCOT

  5. southsalem
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  6. Carry_That_Load
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  7. OwainPenllyn
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    MT @rsmccain #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/aeLelzibpf … #tcot

  8. OccupyBawlStree
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  9. babylon_cat
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  10. wjjhoge
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:08 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  11. BobBelvedere
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:09 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  12. peaceischrist
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:09 pm

    RT @rsmccain: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/gCxQu5Owsa #tcot @instapundit @EdMorrissey

  13. avedisremo
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:10 pm

    @smitty_one_each Allowing the media time to get their story straight. How many shooters, ext. Well just believe w.e they say. #1984

  14. Bob Belvedere
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:11 pm

    Sound advice.

  15. SpectNewsPrism
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:13 pm

    RT @jwbrown1969: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You: Hint: Breaking news is always confusi… http://t…

  16. kerri1ann
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:15 pm

    #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/HLjbMVbwJl

    …sighs…

  17. preciseBlogs
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:16 pm

    #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/nOb6RJMLT3 #news #conservative #journalism #terrorism

  18. DarthLevin
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:18 pm

    There are only two things we need to know: 1) Which fringe teabagger kook group did this and B) How late will Obama be for the press conference addressing this.

  19. glenharnish
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:18 pm

    RT @kerri1ann: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/HLjbMVbwJl

    …sighs…

  20. Quartermaster
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:28 pm

    About the only credence you can give to MSM reports on breaking news is that something happened. the details are almost always wrong. So, someone was shooting at the DC Navy Yard. As RSM puts it, the rest will be known in about 24 hours.

  21. Mark
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:36 pm

    Easy to say if you don’t have family that work in the 1 block radius. Please remember us.

  22. RS
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:43 pm

    I do. Unsaid in the post, but certainly implied, is that the rush to put out something, anything, to beat the competition winds up hurting more often than it helps. This is especially true with those who are waiting for information regarding friends and family. God protect yours.

  23. joethefatman
    September 16th, 2013 @ 12:52 pm

    I’ve not tweeted or anything about it at this point. Nobody knows what the hell’s going on, so I’m not going to, no matter how inadvertently, add to the misinformation out there.

  24. Quartermaster
    September 16th, 2013 @ 1:11 pm

    The cops don’t know what is going on, but they have made an interesting press release, to wit:

    “MPD described the suspect as a black male wearing a black shirt and black hat between 5’10 and 6’0 and 170 pounds. Police say the shooter has barricaded himself in the building, but is still active.”
    Interessant they’ve named the race of the perp.

  25. tgilfeth
    September 16th, 2013 @ 1:25 pm

    #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/7FF8sMhjGO

  26. Navy Yard Shooting: Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
    September 16th, 2013 @ 1:49 pm

    […] http://kxm.209.mwp.accessdomain.com/2013/09/16/navyyardshooting-patience-please-dont-let-media-reports-confuse… […]

  27. robcrawford2
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:09 pm

    The amazing thing is the large number of dim people who use the incomplete, inaccurate, early information as the skeleton of their fantasies of how it’s all part of some great big conspiracy.

    These people should read some history. For comprehension, for a change.

  28. Bob Belvedere
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:14 pm

    -Alex Jones is already there:

    http://twitchy.com/2013/09/16/bring-on-the-derp-conspira-douche-alex-jones-doesnt-know-how-breaking-news-works/

    -David Frum is handling the political douchebagery:

    http://twitchy.com/2013/09/16/unmitigated-ass-did-you-see-how-douche-ghoul-david-frum-politicized-the-navy-yard-shooting/

  29. Tregonsee
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:28 pm

    I am a retired airline pilot, and often had people ask me what happened when there was a crash or serious incident. I would always say that in the first 24 yours you could have confidence that something happened, where it happened, and fairly accurate knowledge of fatalities. Otherwise, ignore everything and in particular ruminations on the cause.

  30. texasfreedom101
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:36 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/j5wEa9qnKY #TCOT

  31. Zoot16
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:38 pm

    @smitty_one_each @texasfreedom101 Media is a mindless parrot. Its the Government that confuses and scares me.

  32. ZillaStevenson
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:39 pm

    @CinnaminM That ain’t gonna stop @rsmccain : #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/CvNAMO3tp2

  33. PaulHair1
    September 16th, 2013 @ 2:49 pm

    @rsmccain: Wise advice: http://t.co/NH0cXIdEvR

  34. trangbang68
    September 16th, 2013 @ 3:21 pm

    I think it was either Adam Lanza’s brother, a “teabagger”, a deranged veteran, a militia member or maybe a Klansman acting out on the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham church bombing.
    The only thing we know for sure, it couldn’t possibly a black person, a gay, an undocumented immigrant or above all a Muslim. That wouldn’t be possible.

  35. robertstacymccain
    September 16th, 2013 @ 3:34 pm

    Cable TV is an awful influence in such situations: The anchors and reporters and talking heads have to fill the air with something, even if it is wild speculation that ultimately proves wrong or irrelevant.

    I remember the Gabby Giffords shooting. Everybody rushed out to point fingers, to ascribe motive, before we even knew who the shooter was. It is impossible to know motive — and especially to say whether there was a political motive — until we identify the shooter and examine his background.

  36. Fareedi al Laayla al Qakhaul
    September 16th, 2013 @ 3:51 pm

    I hope the shooters don’t all share the same middle name “Al”…

  37. concern00
    September 16th, 2013 @ 4:19 pm

    Are you suggesting we don’t tweet a fantasy narrative in order to spin this in accordance with a different agenda?

  38. Reports: 12 Dead in Navy Yard Shooting; Suspect Identified as Aaron Alexis, 34 : The Other McCain
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    […] for this massacre is unclear, and the FBI is leading the investigation is now under way. My early caution about the need to be patient was unheeded by a certain notorious […]

  39. thatMrGguy
    September 16th, 2013 @ 6:35 pm

    #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/e9Xp0juQpc

  40. BobBelvedere
    September 16th, 2013 @ 6:48 pm

    RT @thatMrGguy: #NavyYardShooting Patience, Please: Don’t Let Media Reports Confuse You http://t.co/e9Xp0juQpc

  41. On The Navy Yard Massacre And Obama’s Impuissance* | The Camp Of The Saints
    September 16th, 2013 @ 7:59 pm

    […] Stacy wrote this […]

  42. A Feel-Good Story From the #NavyYardShooting - Lowering the Boom
    September 17th, 2013 @ 4:13 am

    […] of the art and pseudo-science of tragedy coverage, in addition to the newest freak-out from Bill Schmalfeldt in a new podcast of “The Ali Akbar […]

  43. K-Bob
    September 17th, 2013 @ 5:03 am

    Frum is reaching for new lows.

  44. Rule 5: Miss America’s Guns and Ink Manifesto | Regular Right Guy
    September 17th, 2013 @ 5:52 pm

    […] UPDATED: New Information Emerges on Navy Yard Shooting Suspect Aaron Alexis […]

  45. Quartermaster
    September 17th, 2013 @ 7:10 pm

    He always succeeds.

  46. For Aaron Alexis, Doing Obama Nation Was Harder Than It Looked | Regular Right Guy
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