I don’t want another hour to go by before I acknowledge the pathetic display of journalism on Tuesday, by a variety of news outlets, which reported falsely that “dozens” of dead bodies had been discovered buried near a Texas farmhouse.
It turns out that the report was based on a psychic’s claim, yet the media went with the story before knowing if it was true.
A Twitter feed from Houston’s KPRC-TV flat out said there was “Breaking News in Liberty County where dozens of bodies have been found near Daisetta.” The station said it was told by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office that “25 to 30 bodies were reported on a property at the intersection of County Roads 2049 and 2048.”
The New York Times sent its Twitter followers this message: “NYT NEWS ALERT: Up to 30 Dismembered Bodies Found Near Houston, Reuters Reports.”
Reuters, saying it was relying on “local media” reports, had reported that “Texas authorities find up to 30 bodies, including children.”
Within an hour, the story changed dramatically.
As the Associated Press reported this morning, “the investigation into a tip about multiple bodies being buried at a rural Texas farmhouse has now turned to the tipster after authorities turned up nothing in a search of the property.” It seems that “authorities said the tip came from a woman claiming to be a psychic” and they took it seriously because of details she told them regarding the home and property. But they found nothing.
At NPR, which has been burned in the past in a similar way, relying upon local police authorities when reporting a false story, Mark Memmott weighed in.
“We’ve made the same mistake — reporting something we’ve been told by someone who should know, when we really should have waited for more information to come in.
“So we won’t get all sanctimonious.
“But what happened Tuesday when stories started to come out of Liberty County, Texas, about ‘dozens’ of bodies supposedly being found at a home is worth noting. It underscores again how we in the news media need to remind ourselves sometimes to slow down and let the facts become more clear before we rush to report. And at the very least, to be very careful about what we do say when a story is breaking.”
