Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

Unhelpful media after bombs in London

 

Since 9/11 in America our security services have been on high alert trying prevent a terrorist attack on our own country.  Our emergency services such as the police, fire, ambulance and highly trained staff along with backup crews have been practicing for the attack we have seen in London on 7 July 2005.

They swung into action in a well rehearsed fashion and were fantastic in their response to the major incidents in London.  No panic, just straight in and on with the job in hand, no matter how hard it was.  They were a credit to our country along with all the other people who managed to help in some way.

Since 9/11 our emergency services have been practicing for a major incident on mainland Britain and the media has often put them under a microscope asking how they would fair in such an incident.  They have often come in for criticism by the media for overreacting some times.  But they have always been told that they were necessary because our country was a target.

Some parts of media went out and penetrated our security to prove how vulnerable some institutions were as easy targets, and I'm sure it was helpful in some cases.  But I have never understood why they were showing terrorists that our country may have had a few easy targets.

While the media has been so busy checking how other people would react in a terrorist attack they forgot that they had responsibilities too.  When they started reporting the news it was a mish mash of speculation, and what someone was seeing down the road from a distance.

I watched the television news from the start of the bombs going off in London, and I have watched a large part of the coverage since.

They sent out confusing and conflicting messages from the very start and they continued to do so until late afternoon today in their eagerness to report on something that no one else has picked up on.

The emergency services were on the job from the minute it was known that this was a major incident while parts of the media were still broadcasting nothing more than disinformation which caused more confusion than the incident itself.

They were playing nothing more than a guessing game on the television, which became more stupid as the day wore on, which was not helpful to anyone in a major incident like this.

It was not until the police chiefs and emergency services gave their first press conference did anything make any sense.  And even when the media were given the chance to ask proper questions, they made so many mistake that it made me wonder why some of them were there.  Questions were asked before the investigation had even began which the police or the emergency services just couldn't have answered.

It seemed that they wanted all the information of the explosions before the police and other services had been given the time to get into the crime scenes, and some of the questions that they asked had a morbid and disgraceful tone about them.

Their time would have better spent covering something else instead of causing more fear and alarm than the terrorists had created with the way they were reporting this major incident.

For me, the news is about proper information and not causing alarm and fear because the media has not got the proper information from the beginning.

This is something that wall too wall coverage fails to take in to account as they bumble along with their disinformation by trying to second guess what the proper situation is.

The police, emergency services and all the other people involved need the time to gather all the information and they need to be allowed to do their jobs properly without hindrance before stories are flashed around the world which seem to come off the top of their head as they go along.

Of course people are concerned and want to know what's going on, but this has to be done carefully and with a measured response before they come on air with a story.

This is something that they seem to be unable to do as they broadcast information as fact when it is only hearsay or something that may have been heard from someone who has absolutely nothing to do with the investigation.

There are parts of the media that need to calm down when major incidents are reported on before all the facts are known.

I like anyone else was saddened to hear of the terrorists bombs in London, and we can all speculate and play guessing games as to who was responsible and why it was done.  But when a situation such a major incident arises, it is best to listen to the people who are on the job gathering the proper information and who are in a proper position to state what really happened.

Meanwhile, let the people who have to deal with this incident get on with their job, and I'm quite sure the truth of what happened will emerge as they gather it and make sense of it themselves.

That will take time as the people doing the job of sifting through the information that they gather as evidence will need time to piece it together before a picture can emerge.

My sorrow goes out to the families who have lost loved ones, and the many people injured going about their business before this atrocity happened, but be rest assured, the British and other parts of the world will stick together, and there is no way that we will give in to the terrorist.

We will never surrender to terrorists or the types of people that want cause mayhem and try to disrupt our way of life.

The media now need to sit down and plan out a strategy on how they report the news on major incidents before they come on air, without speculating and giving out every rumour that have heard until the proper people have assessed the incident and the seriousness of it.

The television media have duty to their viewers when such incidents arise.  They need to try and report respectfully with the proper information at hand even if it means someone sitting in a studio going through the events calmly.  This is a must when such incidents happen.

The media need to sit down now and work out a proper strategy on how they start broadcasting on major incident before checking that everyone in the emergency and other services are capable of their jobs.

Now you know how they coped in a major incident, now let's see how you perform should there be another major incident.

Written by Andrew Murphy 8 July 2005

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