NPR wrongly reported on-air that Rep Gabrielle Giffords was killed in the Tucson shooting.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. In 1963, just after he joined CBS, Dan Rather was serving as producer of CBS' coverage of Jack Kennedy's visit to Dallas (he was not reporting on-air). He recounts that he was at the local affiliate with the station's news director when they heard somebody say Kennedy had died. Rather was on the phone to New York and repeated what he had heard. In seconds, Rather heard radio newscaster Allan Jackson repeating this "report" of Kennedy's death on the CBS Radio Network. Rather told them the report was not official nor confirmed and Cronkite on the TV side never used it. Still, if Kennedy had not died it could have meant an early end to Rather's career with the network.
Now, whom will NPR fire this time?
It's not entirely clear what happened here but it looks like a screw up at NPR's national news desk. Somehow they heard from somebody in the local sheriff's office and somebody called a "congressional source" that Giffords had died. Members of her family, some of whom were waiting at the hospital while she was in emergency surgery, heard the report. One called NPR's reporter in Tucson. Another called host Scott Simon, who is described as a close friend of Clifford. Originally Shephard wrote that the news desk resisted changing their story after getting a call from their own reporter on the scene; later she back-tracked on this point. Simon asked pointedly why the news desk would take the word of "cops or pols" instead of getting a report from the hospital. Shephard adds that NPR "compounded the error" by waiting a day to issue a correction of an apology.Alicia Shephard said:
This is not the first time something like this has happened. In 1963, just after he joined CBS, Dan Rather was serving as producer of CBS' coverage of Jack Kennedy's visit to Dallas (he was not reporting on-air). He recounts that he was at the local affiliate with the station's news director when they heard somebody say Kennedy had died. Rather was on the phone to New York and repeated what he had heard. In seconds, Rather heard radio newscaster Allan Jackson repeating this "report" of Kennedy's death on the CBS Radio Network. Rather told them the report was not official nor confirmed and Cronkite on the TV side never used it. Still, if Kennedy had not died it could have meant an early end to Rather's career with the network.
Now, whom will NPR fire this time?
