Boston

[tomk52]

3. A common problem...

In every disaster, the press is looking for IMMEDIATE sound bites. The juicier, more sensational, the better. The most screamingly sensational quote-givers are at the top of the reporters' contacts lists.

Just about every competent, knowledgeable person will say something to the effect of "let's not speculate. Let's wait until investigators have a chance to look at the evidence." These folks are at the bottom of the reporters' contacts lists.

Reporters these days do not believe that it is part of their job to get their facts right. Or to use reasonable "experts".

Unfortunately, reporters who use reasonable experts, and relate their opinions that "this is nothing", or "this might turn out to be something, but we just don't know yet", or even "this is serious, & it'll take some time & effort to fix" loses out to the reporter who writes "while not all experts agree, Dr. Looney Tunes believes that this is the end of the world as we know it."

The examples are depressingly common, and now that news media are now publicly owned companies with shareholders & stock value driving the competition, I have no idea if there is a way to fix the problem.