Where the Media Failed (And Succeeded) in the Boston Marathon Tragedy

Amidst the tragedy in Boston, the media became part of the story as we saw the best of reporting from local outlets, especially the Boston Globe, and the worst of 24/7 media coverage, most famously CNN. What happened last week should be and will be studied for years on what to do, not to do and ultimately how money, guests and ratings have trumped.  
Cable news failed because of their failure to handle this information culture we are in. There’s too much information floating around and in an attempt to be relevant, they want to include everything or touch on every angle without considering if it matters or is confirmed.

CNN showed this when they along with others reported that a suspect was on his way to the courthouse. The normally reliable John King said it was a dark-skinned male, an announcement that drew the ire of the National Association of Black Journalists and others.

They also had Jake Tapper far away from the action, which made his reporting/analysis seem distant compared to MSNBC. Bad enough the media got it wrong on identifying the suspects by name and face and probably won’t go out of their way to apologize and work to repair their mistake. 

Information Overload = Less Knowledge, Good Analysis?

"Information has become more important than the source of information.” I read this quote while reading an San Francisco Weekly article discussing Bleacher Report’s rise and it made me think. If anything, this sums up the era we now live in.

Information is more easily available now than ever before. There are more voices telling us what to know and Bleacher Report is one of many sites taking advantage of this. I was attracted to write for them because even though there’s a wealth of voices, it gives you a chance to stand out with your style and insight when done right.

But it makes me wonder about a few things long term. I explored some of these ideas last year and now it makes me think even more about the future. My future as a writer/sportswriter/thinker and our future in society's ability to be critical thinking consumers. This isn't a criticism but a critique of we're getting so much but losing things just as valuable as information.

Sherman Maxwell: The First Black Sportscaster

Before we all loved "Boo-yah!" by Stuart Scott. Before Greg Gumbel and Fred Hickman became pioneers at ESPN and CNN, respectively. Before OJ Simpson was on Monday Night Football. There was Sherman "Jocko" Maxwell, the first recorded Black sportscaster in history.

Maxwell got his start in 1929 doing a 5-minute weekly radio sports report on WNJR in Newark, New Jersey. Despite being turned down 25 times, his persistence was rewarded and soon he became all around the state. He expanded to do radio on WHOM and WRNY in the 30's and 40's and he devoted his energy to his love of baseball.

With the Negro Leagues in full swing at that time, he would call games on the radio and even served as the PA announcer for the Newark Eagles. He'd also submit game stories since the Newark Star-Ledger didn't send anyone to cover Negro League games and eventually wrote a column in Baseball Digest

Maxwell stayed in radio until 1967. He was inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame and died in 2008 at the age of 100. As the great Sam Lacy was a pioneer for me and so many others in print, Maxwell made waves for future Black sportscasters in radio and television. His stories and recordkeeping would prove crucial to preserving the history of the Negro Leagues as time passed.

To Mr. Maxwell, I say thank you.

The Newsroom (Why I Love How It Dares To Dream)

"The Newsroom is a romantic, idealistic and swashbuckling look at a fictional cable news show." - series creator Aaron Sorkin

The minute I saw the trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s latest gem, I was hooked. Heck, the minute I heard Sorkin’s name, I was hooked. The genius of The Social Network and The West Wing was taking his talents to cable TV to write a show about the inner workings of a cable news show.

Then I watched the opening minutes and opening monologue from Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). It was ballsy, in your face and spoke to a lot of truth about how America has fallen from grace.

Three episodes in, I’m seeing why I was hooked from the jump. "The Newsroom" is smart and ambitious. It shines a light on the media and aims to raise the standard of journalism. You feel like you’re watching an actual cable network instead of a show about one.

NABJ 12 Recap (Long Read but Worth It - I Promise)

So folks have asked me how did I enjoy my 1^st experience at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention & Career Fair in New Orleans? I compare it to attending your first college party – you absorb so much all at once. You shake hands, chat up strangers, make a few friends, take in the sights and sounds and somehow try to sleep afterwards.

Repeat this for 3-4 days and once it starts to become normal, you have to leave and readjust back to your life. But what a fun, amazing experience it was to finally be around so many people in your profession and learn from them.

I’ll keep it simple by just doing recaps of my 3 days there – I won’t count getting there Tuesday where I discovered 1) Gas is 70 cents cheaper – 3.15!!!!, 2) Bourbon Street was a mere 5/6 blocks away from the hotel, 3) An old mentor of mine (Mike Terry, formerly of the LA Times) was also in attendance.

Lessons from Shirley Sherrod

We live in an age where people react swiftly without processing anything. Thanks to the Internet and blogging, we (myself included) can respond to anything as fast as we can get to a computer. Thanks to the 24/7 media crush, any controversial, shocking, offensive, bold statement or action will be reported, analyzed and dissected immediately with disregard for context.

The soundbyte and the reaction become the story instead of including the full scope of what someone says or does. Case in point: John Mayer's stupid but not racist comment about saying the N word or his junk being David Duke. Taken by itself, it looks bad but after reading the ENTIRE Playboy interview (as I discussed here) , it's not as offensive.

As a former journalist, we lived for soundbytes but with all of my stories I strived to provide as much context as possible. In a time where people are bombarded with info, I believed in old school practices - get it right no matter what. Inform the readers and don't run with something without double checking. I try to do the same with E-TV.

Bloggers have a lot of influence today, especially in the political/news realm. They have more freedom and tend to find a lot of stories the mainstream media can't get. They have power but some fail to use it with responsibilty. Case in point, this hackjob named Andrew Brietbart.

He sat on the Shirley Sherrod video for months, doctored it to highlight certain points and then, in the middle of a fight between the Tea Party and the NAACP, decided to release it this week. Everyone flipped out at this Black woman working for the USDA saying she didn't want to give her all to this White farmer 24 years ago.

Unfortunately people flipped out without watching the entire video. I was lucky to turn to CNN to get some more information and happened to see Rick Sanchez not only show the video in full, but interview Sherrod and Roger & Eloise Spooner, the White farmers in question.

"Look kids! Real-life reporting to get the truth! Seeee, it still does exist. I told ya!"

The next day, CNN interviewed Sherrod in person and Rick Sanchez again devoted most of his show to the story. Now the NAACP, USDA, Dept. of Agriculture and the White House had to play damage control and backpedal from their rush to judgment.

It was simple protocol - check all the facts. consider the source. don't rush to judgment. Journalism 101, Fact-Finding 101 and everyone failed. So what we learn from this?

(Just the Facts? Where Have You Gone, Joe Friday)

1) News organizations need to better regulate what they report from blogs. Some blogs have agendas and without proper discernment, they get credibility and the public gets snookered into giving them page views. Blogs win, media loses.

2) Don't jump to conclusions without getting all the facts. Reputations and lives can and have been ruined by rumors. Thankfully we saved Shirley Sherrod but what of ACORN and Van Jones, others ruined by this hack Brietbart.

3) Everything's a soundbyte nowadays. It's clean, neat and pretty. But like most things that look that way, it's part of a bigger picture. You don't read a book and just look at one chapter to gain an understanding.

Like anyone else, my blog is my space to react to what happens. But I write with the Spiderman motto "with great power comes great responsibility". Words have power and I and many others choose to use them wisely because of it. It's because we have integrity and unfortunately, integrity has always taken a back seat to popularity, especially now. We won't attack someone unless we have facts.

Evidence cannot lie as CSI's Gil Grissom said (one of my fave shows and characters), but it can darn sure be manipulated for an agenda.

Shirley Sherrod should be the final straw in a dangerous game of jumping the gun that blogs play in the mainstream. It should remind us to search for the truth. Keep the text in its context. READ and SEE Everything not just the flashy soundbytes but the boring words around it to understand it. We failed her and fortunately we were able to salvage some of it via spin control.

Sadly it'll happen again because these are the times we are in. But let it be a lesson in the danger of giving power to too many voices, rushing the judgment and not keeping the text in its context. What's more important, upholding your integrity or leading by emotion because you didn't ground yourself first.

I leave you with Proverbs 4:7 as a motto on how we should be as a society in the information age. Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom. But in all your getting, get understanding - to paraphrase. Be informed but understand what you get first.

(Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on this matter is brilliant. A breakdown that goes so well and so deep that I'm tempted to make it my own post. Since this blog is so long anyway, I'll just link it so y'all can click on to watch later.)

Walter Cronkite - An American Original and Personal Role Model

I always knew I’d feel sad when Walter Cronkite died. As I saw him age, I knew it would happen and yet now that is has happened, Friday was definitely a sad day for journalism and America.

Anyone who knows anything about journalism knows that two names loom larger than anybody in the development of this business: Edward R. Murrow and Cronkite. Murrow was the father of modern-day reporting, a no-nonsense style that catered toward giving the facts and telling the truth. Cronkite was part of the next generation – Murrow’s handpicked successor who birthed the modern-day TV newsanchor while never losing the essence of being a reporter.

I admired him because he didn’t want to be bigger than the story. He was from a school of reporting that every journalism junkie should be – get the facts and tell it straight, no chaser. Travel to wherever the story is. And most of all, while being detached, don’t be afraid to empathize with the viewer when appropriate.

His voice was reassuring and he reminded folks of a grandfatherly figure who sought to earn your trust. The label “Most Trusted Man in America” was something he earned night in, night out and in an era of 3 TV networks, he succeeded.

One defining moment was November 22, 1963 . The way he announced President Kennedy’s death was emotional, yet restrained. Just watch that still shot before you watch this video around the 3:18 mark. Glasses slowly removed, pain on his face, words halting. A moving site that defined a nation's pain.

And yet it was reassuring, the calming presence a nation needed in explosive grief yet I wondered what Cronkite thought that day. His reaction would influence anchors on future days of sadness. Think Jim McKay after the Munich Olympics massacre, Peter Jennings after 9/11, Anderson Cooper after Hurricane Katrina – all of them learned how to report difficult circumstances after Cronkite.

Another defining moment came five years later when he called the Vietnam war a “stalemate.” I remember hearing that in a history class at USD and it pretty much said what most thought during that tumultuous year. I love it because it combined journalism with anchor commentary - Cronkite went to Vietnam a few times during the Tet offensive and saw events firsthand through his reporting, leading him to make his famous assertion.

40 years ago today, he displayed great joy over the moon landing. He was a dogged reporter who knew how to enjoy himself.

My regret is that I was born three years after he stepped down in 1981. But he stayed visible – a living monument to the future of what we should aspire to regardless of profession.

He, along with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and others, inspired me to be a reporter. That voice, that straightforwardness, that presence of knowing what he was talking about, that uncompromising spirit. He was an American original that we’ll never see again. Even after his retirement, he proved to be a sound critic of journalism – particularly the expansion of the media eliminating the need to get facts right or find news to capture our attention 24/7.

Cronkite was about the truth. The unfiltered truth. He told his staff to be a mirror reflecting the news of the day. There’s a time for news and a time for opinion and he helped establish that now blurred line. Thank you, Mr. Cronkite, for your service and your far-reaching influence on our media. You get the last word just like you did 28 years ago.

“Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981” – his last night in the chair.