Reliable Sources on Carl Cameron…
Today on Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz the topic of the wrong person being I.D.’d as the Clinton NH Campaign HQ hostage taker was discussed and Carl Cameron’s involvement. Transcript follows…
KURTZ: When a disturbed man seized five hostages Friday at a Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, some of the media were trafficking in misinformation. The man arrested by police was Leeland Eisenberg. But while the crisis was still unfolding, FOX’s Carl Cameron went on the air and named the wrong suspect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS: We’ve been told by eyewitness that the suspect in the hostage taking is a man by the name of Troy Stanley. We know this from an eyewitness by the name of Cody Bennett (ph) who spoke with us a few moments ago, who is friends with Troy Stanley’s son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Linda Douglass, of course it was not Troy Stanley. Is it irresponsible to be naming a suspect based on a friend of the guy’s son while people’s lives are still in jeopardy?
DOUGLASS: Well, it’s always hard to second-guess somebody who is doing a live shot in the middle of a breaking story like that. On the other hand, when you’re going to release a name, it is generally the policy of most networks to make sure that you have got a second source, that you’ve verified it through law enforcement authorities and so forth. I’m not sure that that was done in this case.KURTZ: And Jim Geraghty, others picked it up, including The Huffington Post. And this guy, Troy Stanley, who had nothing to do with this incident, ends up being, at least briefly, falsely accused of a crime.
GERAGHTY: I’m just glad it wasn’t some guy named Jim Geraghty and having some guy — you know, how would you like to be Troy Stanley that day, people calling you, “Say, are you holding hostages right now?”
It’s one of those things as a journalist you want — you know, you want to be the first with the story. When you hear something like that, you appear to have an eyewitness, the urge to get it out and tell it to the world has got to be overwhelming. But, you know, it’s a breaking story. I guess we should have — you know, have a certain degree of sympathy when things are breaking and changing rapidly.KURTZ: Sure.
GERAGHTY: Maybe the information is not right. And take things with a grain of salt.
KURTZ: And Cameron did attribute where he had gotten the information from. Unfortunately, the information turned out to be wrong.
Surprised? That is expected of Fox News.
Comment by chi — December 2, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Did any other network “identify” the hostage-taker?
Just wondering.
Comment by jmkaib — December 2, 2007 @ 5:27 pm
It was odd how Carl seemed to come by that name initially, this student-looking guy in his mid-20’s coming out and talking about this man he heard about via. family indirectly. Either way, a reminder that when we have these kind of events, initial information isn’t always correct.
Comment by Chris (clind) — December 2, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
“Is it irresponsible to be naming a suspect based on a friend of the guy’s son while people’s lives are still in jeopardy?”
Only if it is done by a reporter who doesn’t work for Fox News. Otherwise it is water under the bridge for these people.
Comment by elmonica — December 2, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Shoddy journalism on the part of Campaign Carl. Even worse for those other networks & websites that ran with the wrong name after Cameron reported it.
Comment by bigred — December 2, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
El, you’re a riot! I love when you call hypocrisy. I think I’m going to go search for a post where you criticized someone who isn’t a Republican/Conservative. Gee, I wonder how many I’ll be able to find…
Good thing I’ve got a few hours to kill… I’m sure it will take a while.
Comment by ImNotBlue — December 2, 2007 @ 6:10 pm
ImNotBlue, after you’ve killed your hours, mind killing mine too? I don’t think I’ll have any better luck.
Comment by Haile Welde — December 2, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
Apparently FNC’s highly touted ElectionLink vehicle couldn’t help Carl Cameron ascertain the facts initially, eh?
Comment by Terance — December 2, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
Do you think we’d even be talking about this if it were done by someone other than an employee of FNC? Of course not. If CNN or MSNBC were involved, the rhetoric would be that it was just bad information under pressure, etc.
Comment by Missy — December 2, 2007 @ 7:49 pm
Ditto, Missy!
Comment by Cella — December 2, 2007 @ 8:02 pm
This reminds me of..oh, I remember now…the gaffe of Anderson Cooper saying the Sago miners were all alive when in fact he had incorect info and they were dead!
I think that it simply makes the point that in the rush to be “first”, information is sometimes broadcast that is incorrect. It could happen to any broadcast network, so I don’t think anyone (especially CNN!) should be taking a holier than thou approach to this one.
Comment by Enquiring Minds Want to Know — December 2, 2007 @ 8:21 pm
jmkaib - Yes MSNBC identified the guy, correctly, as Leeland Eisenberg, during Chris Mathews 5:00 telecast of Hardball. The report came from NBC News’ Pete Williams. I found it interesting that the two channels had different names, so I was keeping track to see which got it right. In fact, Matthews was interviewing a reporter on the air, and that investigator was evidently investigating and speaking to friends of Stanley, because when Matthews mentioned Eisenberg’s name, the reporter recoiled and said “that’s not the name I have.” So, MSNBC deserves credit on that one.
Comment by Scott Warheit — December 2, 2007 @ 8:21 pm
You would think FNC would have seen that MSNBC had a different name. BTW, what did CNN report? Did they mention any incorrect name?
Comment by jmkaib — December 2, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
Scott & jmkalb: I asked this on another thread and got no response so I’ll ask again: was “Troy Stanley” a completely different person or was it an alias once used by Eisenberg?
Overall this items sounds like a little tit-for-tat: CNN ragging on Fox after FNC perhaps went a little overboard critiquing CNN’s Republican debate.
Comment by Ira — December 2, 2007 @ 11:11 pm
From what I understand, Troy Stanley is a completely different person from Leeland Eisenberg, but I don’t know that for a 100% fact. The fact that Fox changed their reporting to the name Leeland Eisenberg should tell us something I would think. As for CNN, I’m not sure what they were reporting. I do think, IIRC, that they spent, at least in the mid-afternoon more time on the Chicago train accident than the Clinton story, which is why I never really paid much attention to their broadcast, switching between FNC and MSNBC instead.
Comment by Scott Warheit — December 2, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
CNN also covered the general/youtube on Reliable Sources. But, I guess that is sorta redundant at this point. It seems like every anchor on CNN/HLN has mentioned this unfortunate choice.
Comment by Terance — December 3, 2007 @ 6:35 am