Before we left Grand Pre yesterday, we were watching the news unfold about the man that was shot and killed at Stockwell Station. It was one of the occassions news outlets like CNN and ITN could have used more restraint. Betty Nguyen (CNN’s Daybreak anchor that morning) was bad. She went from conclusion to conclusion at moments when I was trying to make sense of the stories told by witnesses. Witnesses were telling about ‘5 bullets used to stop a person’. ‘The man was horrified’. ‘Not sure if he was looking Asian’. Betty was talking about Middle Eastern or Asian terrorists with ‘analysts’ who sighed of relief to hear a suicide bombing was prevented. And while making sense of the stories I kept thinking of the words ‘5 bullets’ and ‘horrified’ and concluded that this specific individual must have been the victim of an act of panic. It looks like it was.
I could start hammering about how some people talk these kind of things right (‘shoot first, ask questions later but if it involves my own kid I’m going to sue your ass’ [OK, I made up that last]), but I noticed I was actually more angry about how the media took this item and ended up making an elephant out of a truly, truly sad case. Betty: you are an embarrasment to journalism. CNN: please use more restraint next time, before jumping to conclusions.
Miles O’Brien actually had sharp and good questions for then ‘specialist’ Guilliani. I can’t find the transcript (yet), but I remember his questions were whisked away by Guilliani with words like ‘after 9-11 everything changed’. Yes. Right.