CNN Was In Contact with New Hampshire Hostage-Taker: Didn't reveal information to viewers

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Broadcasting&Cable

Network Contacted Police, Didn't Reveal Information to Viewers
By Jehn Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/30/2007 7:15:00 PM

CNN said it was in contact throughout the day with a man who took hostages at the Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) campaign headquarters in Rochester, N.H.

The network said that after consulting with its own security personnel, it chose not to reveal that information to viewers (it contacted police), concerned about doing anything that could hamper the hostage negotiations, which resulted in all of the hostages being released and the suspect being apprehended without injury.

CNN added that a campaign staffer contacted its Washington bureau, and suspected hostage-taker Leeland Eisenberg also got on the phone and talked with several staffers.

"We're just trying to do the right thing in a situation like this," CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said.

Read more: http://www.broadcastingcable.com:80/article/CA6508791.html?rssid=193

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Responsibility - they has it.

Let me show you it.

[Cha]

2. That would be the

first time they did the right thing.

[swag]

3. Time for a journalists' ethics panel?

Or at least a standards panel?

The canons of journalism expired long, long ago.

What's left? Nothing.

I read this site and instantaneously know everything I'll see on local TV broadcasts the next morning.

[JDPriestly]

4. Amazing.

So, rumor has it the CNN debate audience just happened to be full of Hillary fans. And another rumor has it that some of the questions at the CNN debate just happened to favor Hillary. And, other rumors have it that supposedly a Hillary supporter just happened to ask a question at the CNN Republican debates the other night.

And now there is a rumor that by accident this well known stalker, mentally disturbed hostage taker just happens to have been in communication with CNN "all day" on the very day that he decided to take hostages at Hillary's New Hampshire headquarters.

Weird. As we used to say back in the halcyon hippy days: trippy. Almost too much to believe, but then life is very strange, isn't it.

Well, anyway, all's well that ends well. I'm thankful that no one is hurt, really grateful for that. Fortunately, the hostage taker did not have a real bomb. Even if it wasn't for real, how horrible for the hostages. How were they to know that the hostage-taker had road flares not a bomb. I'm sure being taken hostage was terrifying even if the guy was only pretending to have a bomb. It's not the reality that makes your adrenalin flow, it's your belief, isn't it? And no doubt they really believed they were in danger. So, being taken hostage was not just a rumor, not just a coincidence. That is for certain.

Anyway, I really feel very sorry for the folks working at Hillary's headquarters. It would be terrifying to be taken hostage by someone who is mentally ill.

And of course I also feel sorry for Hillary. It's really awful that she didn't get to give her speech to the DNC today along with the other candidates. She must have been awfully disappointed to have to settle for just appearing at a press conference -- all by herself -- all lonely, as if she was already the president. How awful. At least, since the press conference took place on such short notice, nobody can accuse her of having planted questions.

I'm sure she really would have preferred to appear as the final speaker in the group of candidates at the DNC today where everyone could really compare her message and presentation to that of the other candidates on an even playing field. But even though she got the booby prize, having to hold her own press conference, Hillary made the most of it. There she was -- all by herself -- on prime time TV. Now there is a silver lining for you. Go, Hillary! Good show!

[dantyrant]

5. Yet ANOTHER reason why I won't watch CNN.

[MetaTrope]

6. CNN sure does know how to "make" the news