What would you consider the benchmarks of breaking news coverage? Wall-to-wall coverage with breathless anchors repeating the same sparse details over and over again, speculating on what they could mean, what could be happening and who might be involved? American television journalists got schooled last week, when a gunman opened fire at the Canadian Parliament. Missouri School of Journalism professors Earnest Perry, Mike McKean and Amy Simons discuss the issue.
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's coverage has been praised by many for it's calm and fact-driven coverage of the shooting that took place at the Canadian Parliament on October 22. This exemplarily response also brought criticism to American news media who covered the situation in a very different way.
Anchor Peter Mansbridge provided some insight into the CBC's reporting process during the live coverage of the event.
It's on days like this, where a story takes a number of different pathways, a number of changes occur, and often rumors start in a situation like this. We try to keep them out of our coverage, but when they come, sometimes from official sources, like members of Parliament, you tend to give them some credence. But you carefully weigh it with what we're also witnessing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82qVKJvvxkk
Missouri School of Journalism Professor Earnest Perry said the CBC's calm newscast reminded him of US coverage during the terrorist attacks on September 11, a demeanor Americans haven't seen on the air during recent events.
"I think we need to go back to this kind of coverage because I think this is one of the things that sort of calms the public, takes away the fear and brings fact and knowledge to the story as opposed to rumors and innuendo."
Professor Mike McKean pointed out an important difference between CBC and most American news outlets: financing. He said because the CBC is a publicly funded media outlet, the station can maintain a more unbiased coverage than any news channel in the United States.
"We don't have PBS, for example, out there doing their own 24-hour spot news coverage the way the CBC does. Maybe if they did we'd get that kind of a view point to compare to the CNN's and the Fox's and the MSNBC's."
