Weblog for New Media Storytelling

Posted: 12:30 p.m. 11/12/01

"Instant publishing" on that kind of morning

This morning I keep thinking of Michael Moran, the Manhattan firefighter who told off Osama Bin Laden on national television.

"My brother John was a chief in SOC [Special Operations Command]," Moran said during the "Concert for New York City" at Madison Square Garden. "On behalf of my brother John and 12 members of Ladder 3 that we lost, Osama Bin Laden, you can kiss my royal Irish ass."

With thousands in the building cheering wildly, Moran paused before stepping away from the microphone. "And I live in Rockaway Beach," he said as he took off his FDNY hat. "This is my face, bitch."

This morning, as an airplane incinerates a Rockaway neighborhood, I can't get him out of my mind. Early evidence of the American Airlines crash is pointing toward an accidental cause. And, if even it were terrorism, it would be silly to think a terrorist would aim for one angry firefighter.

But as the flood of information flows from New York, Washington and Atlanta, one can't help but wonder. In most people's minds, the realm of possibilities used to have limits. I don't think it does anymore.

Speculation continues

The television and Internet media corps are proving that today. Speculation has been tempered but, in a world "instant publishing" has been nevertheless relentless.

There have been a few major errors:

• Very early in the reporting, CNN said that American Airlines confirmed the plane was an inbound American Airlines Boeing 767. It turned out to be an outbound Airbus A300.
  
  
• A "breaking news" box atop CNN.com reported: "A senior administration official tells CNN there are initial indications of an explosion aboard an American Airlines A300 in New York, but that the source is unknown."

  At the same time on television, a CNN reporter was practically rebuking anchor Paula Zahn for making a similar assertion. He told Zahn that the official said they were looking into reports-not indications-of an explosion. CNN.com pulled the box within minutes.

With these exceptions, reporters have very cautious this morning and mostly accurate. They have not accepted eyewitness reports as fact and have been consistent in attributions. While information has been slow to come from official sources, they seem to be have gotten the most from the sources they have found, including Mayor Giuliani and firefighters on the scene.

The major news Web sites have collected all of this information, but they have done little more than collect so far in this breaking story. Many of relied on the wires and their own television reporting. Only a few seemed to do original Web reporting.

Washingtonpost.com had a staff-written story by about 10:30 a.m. EST. The story added some good background to the then-thin wire reports: "There were at least four buildings on fire after the crash in Rockaway, a picturesque middle-class neighborhood that was home to dozens of the firefighters lost when the World Trade Center collapsed two months ago. At least 80 people from the peninsula died on Sept. 11, including many from the heavily Irish Catholic Belle Harbor neighborhood where the plane crashed."

Looking at this event, signs point to the Internet still being a library and communication resource. Major Web sites have collected data, and many people have used Web tools to send this information one another. (By 11 a.m. EST, Yahoo users had sent this story more than 6600 times to other users.) Today's case solidly rebuts Fidler's claim of a new media being already born.

No "instant publishing" where it's needed

But there is more than the style of usage problem that shows the current media limitations on the Internet. For all the technological power that the major players have, the medium- and small-sized news outlets appear to be greatly lacking.

By 10:15 a.m. EST, the New York Daily News and New York Post had nothing posted about the crash. By 1 p.m. EST, they had only been able to re-top their pages with AP copy. The small papers specific to Queens had nothing all morning.

These outlets should be the front lines of reporting, rather than lagging and depending upon the major news organizations. Their lack of Web coverage shows how poorly Internet efforts have gone at many companies and, more unfortunately, pushes media consolidation forward. Basically, the local temporarily loses its role, something that should never happen on a local story.

They should instead be picking up on what has been television's strongest advantage this morning: eyewitnesses. The networks, broadcast and cable, had found surprisingly large numbers of people with unique views of the crash. CNN even found the man who owned the yard where one of the jet's flaming engines fell.

Some of these witness reports were wrapped into wire stories, but Web producers could do more. Whether they have the ability to do more is a question that must be asked.