New Jersey paper shows how not to use the police scanner

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: 

By David Uberti, CJR

June 14, 2016

At 10:49pm last Wednesday, The Jersey Journal reported on NJ.com that at least one person “was believed to be grazed with a bullet” in a shooting in Jersey City, a midsized metropolis just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, earlier that evening. “Police were also investigating reports” that a second man was shot at a separate location a few blocks away, wrote Ron Zeitlinger, the Journal’s managing editor. The story continued: “The possible multiple shooting scenes led police to believe that these incidents were connected as part of a ‘running gun battle’ between groups from different areas of the city.”

It would seem to be a straightforward short crime story for an urban area—except for the sourcing. One fact in the piece, the presence of shell casings at an intersection, was attributed to a freelance photographer at the scene. But the only other source cited in the story—which included a report of injuries, a possible second shooting, and speculation of a “running gun battle”—was “police radio transmissions.” “Jersey City officials could not be reached for more information on the early evening shooting incidents,” the Journal explained.

The crackle of a police scanner has long been a fixture of local newsrooms, giving reporters a jump on fast-moving stories. But in an unusual move, the Journal, an Advance-owned publication that covers New Jersey’s Hudson County, has made unconfirmed scanner chatter a staple of its crime and public-safety coverage. Since last fall, the outlet has used the scanner as a primary source for items on a police officer victimized by a hit-and-run, law enforcement raids, a boy falling from the roof of a four-story building, and more shootings, among other stories. Yesterday, when a 2-year-old child was found dead inside a Jersey City home, the Journal’s official Facebook and Twitter posts about its initial coverage cited police radio. (The current version of the story attributes information about the death to the county prosecutor, though it cites radio transmissions for other details.)

In doing so, the paper is swimming against conventional journalistic norms. It’s not uncommon for news outlets to use scanner transmissions to add details and color to a story, especially when trying to reconstruct the timeline of an emergency response after the fact. But relying on the transmissions as a primary or sole source for breaking news is not a practice most newsrooms would embrace.

Read more:  http://www.cjr.org/local_news/new_jer ... se_the_police_scanner.php