The Media Panicked.

[kentuck]

At first, there was a report of a shooting at an Army base in Texas with 7 reported dead and numerous injured. At first there were several shooters reported.

However, they were protecting the schools. The shooters were loose somewhere on the post and no one knew where they were? This is somewhere near the point they panicked.

The different television media were feeding off each other for stories. CNN would report it and it would be reported somewhere else. ABC would report it and it would be reported on MSNBC, and so on. They said he had an "Arab-sounding" name. And they all reported that the shooter had been killed.

It was a difficult story to report. It was terrorism in a different form. It was not totally disconnected from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The shooter, an officer, was a psychiatrist. He treated soldiers that came back from these wars with mental problems and such.

I would be surprised if there was a conspiracy with al Qaeda. But the shooter did not have to be a standing member of al Qaeda to do the work for al Qaeda. The tentacles of war have long reaches.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. They were making it up as they went along....no need to wait for facts.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. In this fast-food, instant gratification oriented society, it is to be expected.

The new motto of "journalists:" You snooze, you lose!

[kentuck]

4. But that is not professionalism journalism.

Am I wrong?

[DJ13]

8. We havent had professional journalism since they forced Rather out

[Malikshah]

2. Media's been doing that a lot lately and they are the last people to criticize themselves

Balloon Boy?
Last election cycles (forever)
Ft. Hood?

I'm calling all of them out except for Rachel-- here coverage, barring her letting her first guest display his Rambo bigotry a bit much, was measured.

[thunder rising]

5. You might just consider that maybe the guy had taken a BUNCH of shit for his name. Coupled

with some PTSD and a new tour ...

Look at what Obama puts up with.

[2Design]

6. Terriorism created by creating killers of ordinary people n/t

[Warpy]

7. I can forgive them for not knowing the living from the dead

because any big disaster from large traffic pileups to mass shootings are total confusion for hours. I think they probably found his ID on him before they loaded him on the gurney to the hospital. At that point, they only knew a lot of people were shot and they had multiple fatalities. They had to be sorted out at the hospital.

Media always runs with nothing but rumors for the first few hours, especially when there's a lot of carnage. On 9/11, when I tuned in at about 1:30 PM NYC time, they were still talking about multiple hijacked planes in the air. Nobody knew anything for sure but they had to fill air time, so they just babbled anything they thought they'd heard.

It's probably going to take weeks to sort all this stuff out.

I am sorry for this guy's family and for all his victims and their families. I hope he's capable of remorse and talks to the psychiatrists they send him. I hope he can help us spot other unstable characters before they snap with what he tells them.

[951-Riverside]

9. @And they all reported that the shooter had been killed.

They did because that's what the Lt. Gen. Dick Head Bob Cone told them during the first news conference.

Lt. Gen Bob Cone said at a news conference that one shooter has been killed and two suspects were apprehended on Thursday. He says they are all U.S. soldiers.

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/military_news/news_ap_attacks_at_fort_hood_connecticut_units200911051555