{OT} Describe The Bias

I'm thinking maybe I missed some bias in this article. The Hack was busy
choking his chicken yesterday and didn't have time to describe the bias in
the article. I'd appreciate some insight from anyone else in this group. I
really would. Honest. Describe the bias using quotes from the article. If
you're really feeling ambitious, pretend you're an editor and you want your
reporters to fix their wording to be more neutral. Show the old wording and
then the new version you want your reporters to use.

Thank you. I'll be back later.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/us/12potomac.html?_r=2&hpw

September 12, 2009
Coast Guard Drill, Misunderstood, Sets Off 9/11 Scare
By SCOTT SHANE and BRIAN STELTER
WASHINGTON - A routine Coast Guard training exercise caught the attention of
television crews on hair-trigger alert for trouble on the Sept. 11
anniversary Friday, producing an hourlong scare about gunfire from boats on
the Potomac River not far from President Obama's motorcade.

Coast Guard officials soon determined that a transmission about mock
hostilities on an open marine channel shortly after 9:30 a.m. had touched
off the blaze of worldwide news coverage.

"No shots were fired," Vice Adm. John P. Currier, the Coast Guard's chief of
staff, said at a news conference afterward. "There was no suspect vessel.
There was no criminal activity."

Admiral Currier called the episode "unfortunate" and said the Coast Guard
would conduct a "top-to-bottom review" to determine whether procedures
should be changed.

With Coast Guard boats still maneuvering on the river, Mr. Obama left the
Pentagon, where he had presided at a ceremony honoring those who died there
eight years ago, and crossed the Potomac on his way back to the White House.
But before officials understood what was happening, breathless reports on
CNN and Fox News Channel sent F.B.I. agents and police officers to the
riverbank and prompted a 20-minute halt to flights at nearby Ronald Reagan
National Airport.

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, later suggested that the
fault for the furor lay with the news media. "My only caution would be that
before we report things like this, checking would be good," Mr. Gibbs told
reporters at the White House.

But CNN, which was first to report trouble on the river, defended its
conduct, saying it had been obligated to report marine radio transmissions
that appeared to describe gunfire.

"Given the circumstances, it would have been irresponsible not to report on
what we were hearing and seeing," the network said in a statement.

Coast Guard officials said such training exercises, intended to improve
boat-driving skills and to practice for encounters with hostile vessels,
took place several times a week, often in the open water near Memorial
Bridge, where the presidential motorcade passed. The exercises are conducted
by the Coast Guard's Washington station, which is overseen by guard
officials in Baltimore, not Coast Guard headquarters.

Friday's exercise, involving four 25-foot speedboats armed with mounted
machine guns, was considered so ordinary that neither other federal agencies
nor local law enforcement officials were notified, Admiral Currier said.

"I don't think our operations people saw any reason not to train today," he
said.

Rather than fire blanks, he said, crew members simply described mock gunfire
in communications on Channel 81, an unencrypted marine radio frequency often
monitored by hobbyists, saying "bang, bang" and giving the number of
nonexistent rounds fired.

Several members of Congress criticized the Coast Guard for the timing and
location of the exercise. "I will explore, with the Coast Guard, what future
corrective actions need to be taken," said Representative Peter T. King of
New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.

CNN staff members monitoring law enforcement activity on the eighth
anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks first heard a Coast Guard transmission
saying a boat had breached a security zone near the Pentagon, the network
said in its statement. CNN contacted Coast Guard headquarters, where a
spokeswoman said she was unaware of any incidents.

After hearing a subsequent transmission about "10 rounds being expended,"
CNN said, it reported the activity to its viewers. An anchor called the
apparent gunfire "pretty incredible."

Soon afterward, Fox News Channel, quoting a Reuters account of the CNN
report, said the Coast Guard had "opened fire" on a suspicious vessel. Some
coverage on both networks included an aerial view of the Potomac provided by
WJLA, an ABC affiliate in Washington.

Police scanner reports can be misleading or incomplete, and reporters often
exercise caution in sharing what they hear.

"There's never a benefit to a news organization in having something first if
it's wrong," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in
Journalism, at the Pew Research Center. "That's why caution is important."

In a public affairs manual published last year, the Coast Guard anticipated
the potential for trouble when communications are overheard.

"There will be times when the media hears about a case by monitoring Coast
Guard frequencies on a scanner," the manual advised. "If you need time to
gather information, tell the journalist; he or she will wait."

Scott Shane reported from Washington, and Brian Stelter from New York.


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