To Television News Executives Covering the Mumbai Attacks
- Report the facts as facts when you know they are facts. If I watch something about terrorist attacks in Mumbai, I don't want to heare that American's are being targeted unless you know this for a fact. I don't want to hear your anchors ask about this. DO NOT REPORT RUMORS.
Simply asking the question ON AIR causes viewers to think it is happening. Your job is to filter rumor from fact and report on fact. If you cannot do this, disappear. Blogging will always report rumors faster than you. If you cannot provide a reliable filter between rumor and fact, you have no right to exist.
- Do not offer dangerous or misleading speculation. If individuals attack hotels in India, police officials in India, and anti-terrorism Indian officials, then do not say the word Al Qaeda. Kashmiri independence groups, feel free to call them terrorists, have reason to attack these individuals and sites. They have a history of doing so. Al Qaeda does not. By even using the word Al Qaeda, you invite the simplistic point of view that thinks all terrorists are Al Qaeda. If an Irish Republican Army splinter group attacks Protestants in Belfast, that has nothing to do with Al Qaeda. This, until we know otherwise, is no different. If we learn otherwise, fine. Report it. However until then, lumping all terrorist actions together is just as dumb on the part of news executives now as lumping together all leftist groups was during the cold war. Supporting a coup against Salvador Allende did nothing to check the Soviet Union but it did empower a brutal dictatorial junta. CAN WE PLEASE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES.
- Offer background, not filler. If you have no news from Mumbai, teach us about the history of Kashmiri Independence going back to Indian Independence from Great Britain. Cover the brutality of the wars that created Pakistan and their legacy in India/Pakistan relations today. Why should Americans willing to watch television news for hours at a time have to search elsewhere to learn the historical context of current conflicts? You are the fourth estate. Provide facts and context. That's why the first amendment protects you.
In short, DO YOUR JOB. If you want to maintain/recover any of the influence and prestige you have lost to new media, please and finally...
DO YOUR JOB.
Sincerely,
New Media