“This is a drill” and journalistic integrity

Yesterday, on the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the media reported that the United States Coast Guard had fired on a suspect vessel on the Potomac River, not far from where President Barack Obama was participating in a memorial service.

At some point in time, someone — not necessarily the media outlets themselves — intercepted transmissions on a marine frequency and reported that a vessel had been fired upon. Without confirming this with the USCG, the media outlets heard this communication (and CNN even aired a portion) and aired it as a genuine, newsworthy incident.

What resulted in an unacceptable breach of journalistic integrity, ripples of panic ensued.

Even the FBI rushed to the Potomac, apparently responding to CNN’s report. Takeoffs from the National Airport were grounded. And numerous people in the District were panicking.

One of the first things you learn in journalism school in your freshman year is to check your sources. CNN said it checked with the USCG’s public information office and the PIO said it hadn’t heard of anything happening on the Potomac. First of all, it sounds like the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. Second, if one source said it didn’t know what was happening, then either wait for confirmation or check with another source.

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips said on-air that a CNN employee in Washington called the Coast Guard about the scanner report, “and they said, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So we went forward with what we learned.” Phillips, reporting in Atlanta, cited CNN employees in Washington for her information.

– Radio Traffic Led to False News Reports of Gunfire on Potomac, The Washington Post

In the words of my journalism professor — if you mother says she loves you, check it out.

Anyone who has been scanning the public safety bands should have a trained ear, and most realize that information broadcast over police radio isn’t 100% accurate. Therefore, it is not a valid source for journalism. The Potomac incident proves that.

If USCG protocol is to say “this is a drill” or “this is an exercise” before every transmission and that policy wasn’t followed, then the blame still rests on the media. If they had bothered to confirm what could have been a major event and then learn that it was just a drill, the public would not have panicked. The buck should have stopped there.

When I was working at the Des Moines Register, we heard what sounded like a police chase over the scanner. We went over to the Big Map of the City on the wall in the newsroom and figured out on our own that it was an exercise since they were doing circles in the state fairgrounds.

There will be other ramifications when the USCG completes their internal investigation on the matter. This will be an example that the federal, state, and local governments will use to justify use of P25 encrypted radios. The government needs more reasons to go encrypted like America needs more Wal-Marts. The media will suffer as well with damaged credibility and a tarnished public image.

Since this was a training exercise, I’d hope that everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson. But it’s already too late.