December 4, 2015

"As tawdry as it looked to have a barrage of reporters trampling through the residence of the deceased couple responsible for this week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, the journalists who walked through the door did the right thing."

"But the journalists who broadcast the invasion live were irresponsible. As a reporter, your primary obligation is to gather information that will help your audience understand all facets of the story. Are you likely to find information in the home of the suspects that could shed some light on the facts? You’ll never know unless you go in. But first you must determine if you have legal permission to enter the residence.... Because any information you gather by prowling through someone’s home is inherently out of context, the newsrooms that use this information have a duty to put it in context...."

Writes Kelly McBride at Poynter.

60 comments:

Original Mike said...

"the newsrooms that use this information have a duty to put it in context...."

If only we trusted you to do so.

Birkel said...

I suggest we get riled by this bit of poor MSM performance and then memory-hole it immediately.

Let's pretend the MSM gets it right when we wake tomorrow.

Skeptical Voter said...

To a proctologist all the world looks like one thing. To a journalist--I didn't bother to put quotes around it--well come on down and trample a crime scene.

To put it bluntly somebody screwed the pooch big time here. The Feeble Bureau of Investigation--and under Loretta Lynch and Obama, the federal investigation of this mass shooting will be "feeble" didn't safeguard the place. Apparently didn't even bother to take much out of it (including a big basket of shredded paper that the news crews found). They then declare "we're done" and vamoose.

I also blame the San Berdoo PD here. They still have or should have a local investigation of 14 murders. Presumably they are also interested in what was in that apartment, and they didn't safeguard the scene.

garage mahal said...

We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we? Not that anyone would want to of course. Still, the liberal media still just isn't.

David said...

I was surprised that the police did not have the place secured. I guess they had done their work, but what of you have to go back.

Titus said...

What is a disporic queer? He is constantly woofing at me on grindr. I can't keep up with all the terms.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"As a reporter, your primary obligation is to gather information that will help your audience understand all facets of the story."
Nonsense. Note that she did not give a reference for this. She is making this up, or maybe she saw it on the old Lou Grant show.

Bob Boyd said...

It seems strange the cops would open up the house so quickly, but I don't know what's standard procedure in a murder investigation or a terror investigation. Is this unusual?

The Bergall said...

Journalist malpractice would be the term...........

traditionalguy said...

Interestingly the raw live Television broadcast is the best information we receive by a factor of ten. The same once clear as a bell truth when it is re-broadcast an hour later after editing, adding a popular narrative and cutting out scenes that contradict the silly narrative is the garbage we usually take in so we will put out the garbage narrative.

She is complaining that we ever get the information without the garbage added.

Dr Weevil said...

Poor GM hasn't figured out that the reason "[w]e never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment" is exactly the same as the reason we'll never see the inside of a leprechaun's apartment, or a unicorn autopsy, or a tomography cross-section of the philosopher's stone.

Sebastian said...

"Because any information you gather by prowling through someone’s home is inherently out of context, the newsrooms that use this information have a duty to put it in context."

Yeah, because MSM journalists are big on "duty." Journalistic ethics, police competence, Lynchian honesty: only oxymorons serve to describe current events and "put it in context."

Police and FBI: can't secure a crime scene, but can secure the whole USA. Yes sirree.

Achilles said...

garage mahal said...
"We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we? Not that anyone would want to of course. Still, the liberal media still just isn't."

See, garage does have an imagination.

JCC said...

Reporters have no right to trespass on what remains the private property of the deceased, regardless of what we might think of the previous occupants, now moved on to that oasis in the sky (or where ever), If cops treated property rights in such a cavalier fashion, the media would be all over it. And cynical me, I'm wondering how much the landlord was paid by various media outlets for that access. It sounds like the first couple had to pay, and then the rest bum-rushed the door without their tickets.

This is aside from the quite evidently sloppy crime scene search done by the FBI. Photos are being shown of shredded paper in a wastebasket. You must be kidding me. How could any competent search have left such glaring potential evidence behind? Also shown in photos: notebooks, papers with printing and handwriting, books, etc. Who knows what else also remains? This is a major terrorism investigation with the possibility of unidentified suspects remaining at large, and the FBI left all this stuff behind? In a case like this, they should have taken everything up to and including the wallpaper. You can alwaays give it back. But once you leave something, it's gone forever. A month from now, someone is going to say "Wait, wasn't there a ___ in the apartment? Maybe it had fingerprints/fiber/data/etc" Sorry, too late.

Amateur hour. But then, the FBI has always been more about PR than actual experience. The locals probably do a dozen or 2 dozen crime scenes a day, and have to testify about them all the time, so they constantly learn how to improve their technique. The FBI brought in some special crime scene crew that might do a crime every few weeks or months, and might have never been in court about any of them.

Rick said...

Because any information you gather by prowling through someone’s home is inherently out of context, the newsrooms that use this information have a duty to put it in context...."

Does she believe this or was she mentally scrambling to find a criticism that aggrandized journalists rather than showing them as the slimy bottom feeders they are? If she believes this it can only be because she thinks Americans are idiots or she's admitting journalists must first frame everything so people draw the approved conclusions, or both of course.

holdfast said...

So is this more federal incompetence, or are the Feebies tanking this investigation on purpose?

Titus said...

So I have taken to grindr recently and I live in Cambridge Mass and most of the guys on grindr in my hood r from far away lands.

My interest in them, other than them blowing me, is what is like to be a fag in their country.

I ask lots of questions when they enter my loft. Are u out in Beirut? What is life like for a mo in Sri Lanka? Do u have this many fag options in Madagascar? How do u like Boston? They r reluctant to speak about their home country. They just want to get down to business, which I am completely fine with, but I am very interested in their homeland. Universally they say Boston is like any other european city and i likey.


I am also curious about how they deal with the cold for the first time. Are they prepared, how does it feel, and do they have the appropriate dress?

My current grindr hubby is from a rich family in Beirut. He is receiving his Phd at Harvard. He has been to my loft many times but requested that he host. So I went to his place and was blown away. He lives on a fab street, overlooking the charles and Boston. His family purchased the place and I was like fuck my place is shit. Water views and everything.

He cums a lot but has a small dick and is hairy-normally I hate hairy guys, but he is an exception.

Rick said...

David said...
I was surprised that the police did not have the place secured.


The story on NPR tonight was that an Inside Edition reporter paid the landlord to get inside and the other journalists followed them in.

bgates said...

We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we?

Nope. Nor will we ever see Yoda's collection of Streisand albums. Because that is also not a thing that exists.

David Begley said...

Just glad to see the couple, baby and grandma were living normal lives while the two murderers were building bombs in the garage.
Some one needs to clean out the frig as the tenants aren't returning.

Note well that the Koran and a "prayer" book were shown on TV. The proper reading material for the Religion of Peace.
Kind of an instruction manual for them.

Scott said...

If you are ever in the vicinity of a news story, you will experience what vultures the media can be.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I was cringing...

I kept expecting to learn something. But they had nothing news worthy.

Greta, recalling OJ, said it was a bad move to release the site so quickly.

For example... If they find the couple were part of a cell, any evidence (finger prints) left at that house connecting other would be cell members, might now be contaminated/lost.

Ken B said...

After Katrina the responsible, context-supplying journalists told us of the mounds of bodies at the stadium, and some irresponsible jerk showed us pictures devoid of bodies. The responsible journalists told us the French Quarter was gone but some other irresponsible jerk showed video of it still there. Sheesh. Someone has to contextualize or else people will just believe their own eyes.

Anonymous said...

As crude as this all looks, if the FBI released the scene and the building owner let the media in, I don't think there's anything unethical about entering. Now, showing identifying documents without blurring them out...come on, somebody had to know better.

As for the FBI being done this fast, they'd better hope the media's live video coverage right after they finished doesn't end up embarrassing them, because that video is going to get picked apart by the whole net to see what might have been missed. The shredder contents and the left behind driver's license at least suggest the possibility of sloppiness. Not that that would be anything new for the government, which apparently didn't catch a fake address on the wife's visa application. Top men, everyone. Top men.

Bob Loblaw said...

We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we?

Or a unicorn's, eh Garage?

Smilin' Jack said...

Because any information you gather by prowling through someone’s home is inherently out of context...

Actually, it's inherently and by definition in context.

Bob Loblaw said...

The Feeble Bureau of Investigation--and under Loretta Lynch and Obama, the federal investigation of this mass shooting will be "feeble" didn't safeguard the place.

The Feds told the complex owner they were done with it. Seems hard to believe they wouldn't keep everyone else out just in case they wanted to come back. Also seems hard to believe the Feds were done and the local cops didn't want to send their own team through.

Drago said...

garage mahal: "We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we? Not that anyone would want to of course. Still, the liberal media still just isn't"

LOL

Once again, no comment necessary.

chickelit said...

garage mahal said...
We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we? Not that anyone would want to of course. Still, the liberal media still just isn't.

Nice hypothetical garage. Truth is, under Obama/Lynch they'd have had a such a "Christian" site it cordoned off for days as they planted evidence.

My God, Obama is becoming so transparently Muslim it's hard to believe.

Aside: Is there one Federal Agency that hasn't turned to shit under Obama?

MacMacConnell said...

Bet the PP shooter's home isn't open. Amazing the FBI finished their investigation in 36 hours and released the bomb factory to the media. Hopefully they won't need to go back since the site is now corrupted. Didn't they handle the consulate in Libya the same way?

eric said...

I blame it on this administration and our current climate.

The FBI got a warrant from a federal judge. Likely it was a seizure/arrest warrant (Assuming they caught these people alive). Warrants are very specific about what sorts of things you can seize. Given this was a murder (Or series of murders) the warrant probably had things like bullets, guns, bombs, computers, phones, etc on it. This is the type of warrant you would obtain if your assumption is it's a work place shooting. Therefore, you go in, execute the warrant, take whatever is listed or fits the warrant, and you're done. You leave a list and you go.

Now, suppose they had treated this residence as if these were enemy combatants in the war on terror. Suppose, from the beginning, they treated this as a terror attack. Don't you think they would have seized everything? Obtained a different sort of warrant? One that allowed them to take all evidence that made lead back to a terror cell? Fingerprint the place for possible associates? Look for a larger group?

But instead, they treated this as though it were work place shooting incident.

And the media treated it the same way. The media wanted to go in and find evidence that it wasn't terrorism. And they crapped all over the evidence.

We have an unserious media and I actually expect that of the idiots in the media. But unfortunately, we also have an unserious administration. And because they treated this as a work place dispute, as a lone wolf going postal, they lost a lot of information and possible ties to what really happened.

I can't wait until this bozo leave the White House.

Laura said...

"Journalistic malpractice may be the term..."

Conflict of interest may apply also. Getting the story wrong initially means another story to sell in modern newsrooms. Surprisingly, the consolidation of media outlets hasn't resulted in higher wages for those at the bottom rungs, making story templates and narratives appealing in the race to McPress.

Mr. Buffett doesn't seem quite so concerned about the coal dust as Mrs. Boxer. Train schedules, shipments, and major metropolitan areas would be too hard to coordinate, no? Bullet trains must be the solution . . .

jaydub said...

"We never would see the inside of a radical Christian Tea Party bomber's apartment, would we?"

Since I don't currently live in the US, I am not completely up on all the local news, so I hope you will pardon my ignorance. Could someone fill me in on the radical Christian Tea Party bomb incidents or give me some links? Is that a major problem in the US, too?

Carnifex said...

The site was cleansed by the FBI. Loretta Lynch has already promised to persecute anyone who dares defame fucking Islam. (Hey your highness! Prosecute me, you bitch!) Fuck her, and the Kenyan that hired her. The media reacted as the media will...no surprise there. That the FBI as been turned into a arm of political messaging for the WH is... Even with a new president I fear that no one will be able to cleanse the filth that the Kenyan has inserted into America.

Humperdink said...

Having recently received my Ph'D in the TV show Forensics Files, I can't tell you how many times evidence has surfaced in subsequent searches, but it has been more than once.

Sydney said...

The media coverage of this shooting has got to be one of the strangest I have seen in my lifetime. 1) I can not believe they think it's OK to go into someone's house and rummage around like that. 2) I can not believe they think it's OK to go into an area that police and federal investigators need to inspect for clues and rummage around like that. It's almost as if they think they are above the law.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

The event being covered was the media feeding frenzy. "Tawdry?" If the shoe fits...

Ron Winkleheimer said...

It was a base and appalling spectacle. It created a carnival like atmosphere and was clearly done simply for entertainment value. The fact that the various media outlets see no problems with it and so many in the media are seeking to excuse it only serves to cement my belief that so called "journalists" are simply ghouls and hucksters. I have decided to boycott all TV news except for local coverage.

As for the FBI releasing the scene. If that is true, which it appears to be, then they are incompetent boobs. I actually have training on securing evidence relating to computer forensics. You don't just secure the phones and computers. You also secure all books, notepads, scraps of paper, trash, etc. They might have written down accounts and passwords, phone numbers, contacts, dates, etc. That's forensics 101. The FBI left behind shredded documents for God's sake!

AllenS said...

Does anyone have any faith in the local police department of San Bernardino, or the FBI?

What these media vultures exposed was the utter incompetence of both the police and FBI.

alan markus said...

I noticed in the pictures that all the glass was knocked out when conducting the search. Was it really necessary to do that? I mean, it's not as if they were searching some government drone's home looking for a secret router in the gathering of evidence for a secret John Doe investigation. They could have allowed the media to be there during the search - given them a heads up, Wisconsin style.

Tank said...

The media is always "putting the news into context."

Thank God we have the internet now, and talk radio, and occasionally Fox News even to eke out some of the actual truth. Although, to be honest, it is now impossible to know what is true about anything. I mean, did the Lions actually lose a game they were winning when the clock showed 0:00? Yes they did (I think, but who knows).

Ron Winkleheimer said...

So anyway, the impression I am taking from this debacle is that the FBI doesn't seem to think that a couple of Jihadis killing 14 people is that big a deal and it is pretty sure that they didn't have any accomplices or associates who might also be interested in performing an act of Jihad in the U.S. Therefore, a lackadaisical attitude towards the investigation is to be expected.

Apparently the FBI has decided to lay the ground work for a Trump landslide.

Michael K said...

The San Bernardino police looked good until that nauseating scene. It was appalling. The comparison to Benghazi was apt and both cases seem to be evidence of unseriousness in investigations that the Obama regime in not very interested in.

Fox News was right in there at the trough, too. I suppose they couldn't stay away.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Or perhaps the FBI had the couple under surveillance and already knows who went in and out of the house (therefore no need to dust for prints) and was surprised when the couple decided to compress their project's time-line?

Perhaps that was the "tip" that led the police to the couples home almost immediately after the shooting.

DavidD said...

I saw somewhere that the door had been nailed shut and somewhere else that the landlord has been arrested for letting in the media.

Has anyone else seen these?

I'm Full of Soup said...

I thought it was great that MSNBC just showed its viewers exactly what they found without editing or withholding info. Isn't that a reporters' most basic job? To tell us who, what , when, where and why?

You know we first heard the mother in law didn't live there so she could not have known of bomb making. Now the media finds her driver license etc at the apt and the story changes to yeah she lived there but she never went downstairs to the basement.

JackWayne said...

Is this another tell that the FBI is gonna let Hillary walk?

Anonymous said...

Why wasn't this house protected?? It almost seems like they wanted the evidence tampered with....One expert said he noticed that NO fingerprints had been taken?? WTH?? Are we protecting terrorists?? The journalists who went in should be arrested. This was a crime scene.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

You know we first heard the mother in law didn't live there so she could not have known of bomb making. Now the media finds her driver license etc at the apt and the story changes to yeah she lived there but she never went downstairs to the basement.

Perhaps she was an informant to the FBI who has now been outed thanks to the FBI's incompetence and the press' lack of morals or ethics.

Or perhaps the FBI was using her knowledge of the bomb making to pressure her for more information but didn't want it known so that associates wouldn't go underground.

Thanks MSM!

JCC said...

@ Michael et al -

I think it was apparent that the locals were kicked off the apartment scene early by the Feds. There were not any local crime scene people there searching or observing from what i saw on TV, which is typical. The FBI will assert jurisdiction, throw everyone else off and tell us "We'll send you copies of our reports." At least one media report at the time of the feeding frenzy was that the reporter called the San Bernardino PD, and was told "No, that's an active crime scene. No one should be in there." because the local cops hadn't been informed by the FBI that they had cleared the scene and returned control to the landlord. The locals were reasonably assuming they would get a courtesy call before the FBI left. Guess they don't have much experience dealing with Fearless Big Investigators.

steve uhr said...

Any moron could tell that the apartment was teeming with potential evidence that had not been adequately examined by law enforcement. Shredded paper in a trash can, Photos on unknown people. The scene is now totally contaminated with hundreds of fingerprints of the media that will have to be excluded from fingerprints of people that were at the apartment before Wednesday's attack. Heads at the FBI should roll if they gave the okay.

And since when is a landlord free to let anyone he wants into an apartment that he rents at any time?

Fernandinande said...

put it in context

"Fit the narrative."

effinayright said...

Maybe some of the enterprising "media" can contact the "students" in Tehran who took over our embassy and reconstructed, strand by strand, the documents embassy staff had desperately tried to shred.

Damn sure the journos themselves aren't going to waste their time on such scutwork.

Once again, a case of foreigners doing the job Americans won't do.

effinayright said...

"And since when is a landlord free to let anyone he wants into an apartment that he rents at any time?"

Dead or not, the perps have heirs who would inherit the personal property left behind.

The landlord made no attempt to protect that property.

At the very least, he's a jerk.

Chris N said...

I get all my news online. A desktop, tablet, and my mobile device.

Twitter's a live feed. I indulge in a few sites where people generally agree with me, but visit quite a few that don't.

I actively look for people who know about a subject in question, and smart people who might disagree.

I read books, too, mostly philosophy, history and political philosophy.

I like good photos, good poems, good guitarists, and long walks on the beach.

Will said...

There is no way the FBI could have done a proper analysis, suitable to the crime and the risk, within 48 hours. Especially because facts continued to roll in showing the occupants not only had visitors on a regular basis that tingled a neighbor's spider senses, but also in light of the pledge on Facebook and the discovery the wife gave a fake address on her visa application and is ted to a radical Pakistani mosque.

Clearly this was (yet another) colossal Obama administration clusterfark. I can see with my own eyes the data in that house is not all processed. But the damage is done and they are going to close ranks in CYA mode.

Rather than being out playing Social Justice Warriors yesterday, Lynch and Obama should have been focused, making sure the investigation could succeed that that interagency communication was maximized and silos eliminated.

Yet all citizens note their incompetence and the betrayal of duty and the unwillingness the take a threat seriously. Obama lives not in a Sep 10th 2001 mindset; he is in a pre-WTC1993 bombing mindset. This has an incalculable negative impact on public confidence and morale. Bill Clinton's unwillingness to take 1993 WTC bombing seriously gave us African embassy bombings, the USS Cole and 9/11. Obama's unwillingness to take the threat seriously has given us Boston, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, Waco, Merced, 200k dead in Syria and a Refugee crisis perfect for bad guys to capitalize on.

Obama's election-driven decision to override his military advisors and withdraw prematurely from Iraq created the vacuum that gave rise to ISIS and his undeclared war in Libya gave us Benghazi and created a rogue failed state festering with ISIS, AQ and caliphate fans. Obama did not take opportunities to destabilize adversaries like Iran; he dithered then destabilized Egypt and Libya which were at least sympathetic to the USA. If only Obama put the effort into isolating and handling Assad that he has put into working against Netanyahu. Instead Obama's incompetence has given Russia Crimea, probably Ukraine, and a renewed role in the Mideast.

Anyone who read the recent secret service fiascos, or saw Obama's policies like healthcare and foreign policy blow up, or seen him struggle with simple basis competence and execution in the VA, IRS, or EPA knows this President is not up to the job. Failing to fully examine this apartment for clues given that the couple had known visitors and a full arsenal is unforgivable but par for Team Obama incompetence.

If we had found bin Laden in a cave, would he have been done investigating in 48 hours? On second thought, Obama suppressed the mountains of intelligence from bin Laden's compound, likely because it clashed with the narrative he needed from his 2012 election campaign.

The San Bernardino investigation is a very serious matter and the stakes are mass casualties and life and death. You really think the FBI did a competent job in under 48 hours when they left shred in the garbage can and bomb components in the garage? Even as the picture of the people and their motivations evolved as the FBI were doing it?

The FBI are either incompetent (in the search and/or in securing the crime scene) or are not taking this seriously. Either of these options is both infuriating and frightening.

Just like Bill Clinton did, Obama is going to walk out the door and leave a massive tragedy for his successor…

John Henry said...

Fucking journalists. Why do they think they have the right to enter someone's apartment without permission? Why does the landlord think he has the right to sell the right to enter the apartment without permission?

The parents of these scumbags, assuming they are the heirs, are the only ones who have the right to grant permission for entry. I hope they sue the asses off all these journalists for invasion of privacy and anything else they can think of. I hope they prosecute the bejabbers out of the journalists and the landlord for trespassing and perhaps conspiracy to commit trespass.

John Henry

John Henry said...

At the risk of sounding like a paranoid nutjob, perhaps this contamination of the scene was on purpose?

Perhaps the FBI does not want to have to deal with a terrorism investigation of Muslims? Perhaps the FBI does not want to know who/what was behind the terrorism?

Might this contamination allow them to say "Well, we really wanted to investigate the Muslim terrorist angle but these darn journalists have made it impossible now."

I do not trust the govt any more than I trust journalists.

In short, not even a little bit.

John Henry

gbarto said...

If the FBI was in and out that quickly, it's because people higher up decided there wasn't anything there they wanted to know. And with the administration telling us that it can be trusted not only to distinguish terrorists from refugees but also to implement an unconstitutional gun control regime, it's fairly clear why they don't want to know themselves or have anyone else know what happened here. The only thing you can find in that apartment is our government's failure to defend the homeland and meet the challenges they're asking us to trust them with. They don't want us to see that.

Capt. Schmoe said...

This whole story is bull. First of all, the feds took everything they wanted out of there then returned it to the property owner. It is his after all. He let the savages in to bore us with photos of books written in Arabic, pampers and dirty dishes. If the feds ever did want to go back, they would have to get another warrant to do so. They likely did not have sufficient cause to maintain control of the property and thus did not. I understand that the mother of one of the terrorists lives in the same unit. If so, Mr. Landlord may have a problem by allowing the media in. Grandma's attorneys will see to that.

The bigger story is the ravenous nature in which the media entered the unit and covered the event. That, coupled with images of crying people, indignant politicians and talking heads demanding what can be done "to prevent this from ever happening again" is exactly what the real goal of the terrorists is. Every ounce of fear that can be instilled into us, causing us to forfeit more of our rights and freedoms, is one more step in causing our demise as a society.

We need to get over this and move on. Mop up the mess, grieve privately and go about our lives. This incessant yammering serves no purpose but theirs. We also need to address all of our reactions to these events should we be unfortunate enough to be involved in one. EVERYONE present needs to engage and counterattack the shooters with a shovel, knife, handgun, chair whatever is available. Yeah, some are going to die, but those would probably have died anyway. As it is now, the lone counter-attacker is going to die for nothing. One of the drawbacks of unicorns and participation trophies.