Another mass shooting led to wall-to-wall news coverage. The Washington D.C. navy yard shooter sent newsrooms scrambling to zero in on who killed 12 people and why. As these stories break, never let the facts get in the way.

NBC and CBS both blundered big time. The organizations misidentified a Virginia man as the suspect because that man’s ID was found near the shooter. The rush to get the story first is overshadowed by the requirement that the news organizations should get it right. While the wrong ID was retracted, the damage was done. The man is not only still trying to refute the erroneous news report, but is grieving, since he lost a friend in the shooting rampage. Continue reading →