Politico: …On today’s edition of MSNBC’s Daily Rundown, which Todd hosts, NBC News analyst Evan Kohlmann started describing what he believed was one of the suspect’s Amazon “wish lists” — that is, a list of products the suspect wanted to buy on Amazon.com, the online retail site.Kohlmann said that yes, this was a possible clue, but not a solid fact.
“Let me stop you there,” Todd said. “We don’t know for sure this is one of his Amazon wish lists?”
“I want to stress, we don’t know for sure, but it is certainly his name….” Kohlmann said, before being interrupted by Todd.
“I’ve got to stop you there,” Todd said. “Our folks — we don’t necessarily want to put this on air yet until we verify it.”
Kohlmann said he understood, then started speculating on possible links between the suspects and Al Qaeda or other organized terror networks on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which, he said, have been known to use Chechens or individuals who look like Chechens.
“One of those groups is known as the Islamic Jihad Union,” Kohlmann said.
In the studio, off camera, a voice could be heard saying, “Oh my God.”
Todd finally cut in again: “I didn’t mean to cut you off, but we don’t want to draw so many conclusions,” he said. “But your point is that this is the type of string that the intelligence community is going to start pulling at — is that right.”
I’m posting this mainly because it shows just how skittish networks have gotten about running with false reports. After CNN’s fiasco especially, they all seem to want to avoid reporting anything that isn’t confirmed as fact by investigators or officials.
“Chuck Todd may have saved MSNBC from an enormous blunder this morning when he stopped one of the network’s analysts from speculating on ‘the electronic trails’ of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects,” writes Politico’s Dylan Byers. Would that all reporting were as cautious and diligent. When the rush to be the first and slap “EXCLUSIVE!” on your report begins to outweigh the need to be right, you’re doing it wrong.
[image by Nic*Rad]
