NPR’s ombudsman, er, -person on how NPR’s premature announcement of Gabrielle Giffords’ death hurt her family:
[A] distraught family member called [NPR anchor and friend of the Giffords Scott Simon] : “Scott, where the hell is NPR getting that information?”
“The close family member is a huge NPR fan or was,” said Simon. “Until that moment, he found NPR more reliable than other news outlets. He had been told that Gabby was in surgery. But he was anxious, isolated, and wondered why NPR would report such a thing if it were not true.”
NPR’s reasoning? They had two “reliable” anonymous sources.
Simon phoned the NPR news desk and was told the information was based on “confirmation” from the Pima County Sheriff’s department and a congressional source.
This would be the same Sherrif’s department, of course, that was to make claims about the “inflammatory” right wing media.
(Updated: Sorry for the horrible blockquote error there.)
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