It didn't get any better for FOX as the situation developed throughout the day. While Carl Cameron was on the air at 4:15PM EST reporting that all the hostages had been released, repeating it over and over again as if it were fact, CNN and MSNBC were cautiously reporting that according to police the situation was still uncertain, fluid and no one knew how many hostages still remained inside the campaign office. At 5:37PM EST, as seen live by millions, another hostage, a female, was released and at 6:13PM, a male hostage was released. FOX had gotten it all wrong.
So much for corroborating information before going on the air with it, not to mention getting it all wrong. But accurate and responsible reporting would be asking just a little too much from a pop-entertainment channel now wouldn't it.
In an interesting and revealing sidenote, Cameron reported the release of the female hostage this way.
She fit's the description of your typical Clinton campaign volunteer.
What's that mean Carl?
Now brace yourself for the really bad stuff. Earlier in the day, Carl Cameron had proceeded to excitedly "confirm" the identify of the hostage taker as one Troy Stanley, who he identified as a "paranoid schizophrenic who was not taking his medication". For more than an hour Cameron went into details on Troy Stanley and his life, even going so far as to report that his family was at the scene. How utterly irresponsible of Cameron and FOX to go public with this; knowing full well a campaign office usually has televisions inside and not knowing how a mentally disturbed person might react to being referred to as a parnoid schizophrenic in front of the entire world. Remember, it was thought he had a bomb strapped to him.
Pointing out the obvious, Earl Sweeney the Assistant Director of The NH Department of Public Safety and Captain Paul Callaghan of the Manchester, NH police department, released statements communicating that it was still a fluid and dangerous sitiuation and that it would be highly innapropriate for anyone to publicize the name of the suspect or his condition. But then again a high-school newspaper would have deduced that wouldn't they?
It sounds like things had gone badly enough to that point doesn't it? But, it actually got worse. At 5:50PM NBC and CNN reported that the suspects name which they responsibly said "they cannot confirm" was not Troy Stanely at all but one Leeland Eisenberg. At 6:16PM Leeland Eisenberg surrendered peacefully. FOX News had mistakingly identified an innocent man as a hostage taker and a paranoid schizofrenic. I wonder if Troy Stanley knows a good lawyer; does anyone remember Richard Jewell and the Atlanta Olympics?
An addendum to this story. CNN revealed afterwards that the suspect Leeland Eisenberg and a hostage had called CNN hours before, in the middle of the crisis. As responsible journalists they made the decision not to air anything. It's too bad that FOX didn't adhere to the same professional standards and decided to put lives in jeopardy by racing to be first on the air with information that turned out to be wrong.
Come on FOX. Do you ever get anything right?
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