As a journalist, I could not imagine covering an event as tragic as the Virginia Tech shooting. To meddle in these peoples lives just hours after their friends and schoolmates have experienced one of the most horrific massacres in school history is something I could probably never bring myself to do. These journalists must be brave, respectful, and most importantly, ethical.
When I heard about the shooting, the first thing I did was turn on the TV and wait to hear the facts. How many were killed? Where did the shooting take place? Why did this happen? And most important, WHO WAS THE GUNMAN? Media outlets rushed to give us the answers, but in doing so, broke the golden rule of good reporting: accuracy.
In early reports, several television networks identified a 23-year-old United States citizen of Chinese descent as the gunman. Sun-Times Columnist Michael Sneed was cited as the source by news outlets such as WWBM, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and the Herlad Sun. NBC additionaly reported that the gunman was not a student at Virginia Tech. Unfortunately, Sneed was misinformed and, as a result, accused an innocent man, Wayne Chiang, of murdering 32 people.
Since the broadcasts, Chiang has received "numerous death threats" and "slanderous accusations." I don't know much about his life or what kind of person he was, but no one deserves to go to bed an innocent man and wake up a world-renowned murderer...especially when he's 250 miles away from where the killings took place. Sneed not only failed to check the facts, she failed as a journalist. She let down her co-workers, she let down the public, and she let down Chiang.
By April 17, Sun-Times corrected Sneed's original story and named Seung-Hui Cho, a South Korean national and Virginia Tech student, as the shooter, but it did not stop the criticism. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao accused the U.S. media for "irresponsible reports" and said it was a violation of professional ethics. Chinese students at Virginia Tech plan to protest the Sun-Times report as well.
I know our job is hard...we want to break the news and we want to be the first, but it's so important that the public gets the truth. These people rely on us and incidents like this weaken their trust. Let this be a lesson...
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2 comments:
Good post. This was indeed an unfortunate chapter in the "speed vs. accuracy" debate. And there's really no way the reporters who got the story wrong can make things right with the falsely accused.
I was surprised you didn't link to any other sites or add in some photos. Your text is good, but it might have benefited from additional materials.
Hey taylor, you were going to write a piece on "cougars" a while back and quote something from my blog. Did you ever do anything with it? I'd love to read it sometime.
Romius T
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