Sunday, July 26, 2009

289: Metreon complex shooting in 2001 San Francisco

289.

Published news advisories/updates by Lurene Helzer for Bay City News, June 14, 2001, “Metreon Shooting; Two Officers Injured”. This was a set of three advisories I put out from our office at Fox Plaza that morning. It regards a shooting late the previous Wednesday at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco’s downtown.

It was nearly 1 a.m. when I released the first advisory, and 4 a.m. when I wrote the third, more accurate and detailed story. The police and fire department officials gave slightly different versions of events because it was all they knew between 1 and 3 a.m. The first was based on word from a San Francisco Police spokesman. I was talking to him, likely, in the course of my usual duties around midnight.

It’s easy to quote police and fire officials, but as a reporter, you need to take a good look at that material before circulating it. Do the math in your head. Are the police making errors? Who will see this news and why? Is the public going to erupt in rage no matter what the facts?

To some extent, this is what we’re seeing for downtown Oakland today, in January of 2009; we see riots and destroyed commercial property because of serious errors by police. The public is not fully considered sometimes, or does not feel it’s being considered by local government agencies.

You saw an instantaneous revolt against law in 2009 Oakland. The revolt is over more than just one violent act, though. Oakland was a site of widespread criminal violence all through 2008. Oakland is starting 2009 the same way.

Back to this 2001 case in downtown San Francisco, you’re discussing violence on private property. It did not lead to riots, but you had a slight misunderstanding of events between various city employees in the first few hours. I was trying to get the story straight in the dead of night. The important task for the journalist is to cite addresses, names and times accurately.

Accurate reporting is key. All of these rules won’t apply with the foreign reporting, though. The source may be under no obligation whatever to speak truthfully. Riots go on every day. You triple-check facts, and possibly not report them at all. I am writing this on January 10, 2009, mind you, while hearing a mix of information and allegations out of the Mideast by partisans claiming to be journalists.

The thing is, you can’t let your information for the public get sloppy under any circumstance. It’s the rule to know everywhere and always.

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