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American Morning

How Has the Media Affected Sniper Hunt?

Aired October 10, 2002 - 09:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper killings in the Washington area have brought a chill of fear to the region, and a swell of media coverage. Montgomery County's police chief lashed out yesterday at the media for reporting leaked information, and this morning he seemed much more conciliatory, saying he's heard from the public and the public very much wants law enforcement to work closely with community leaders and the media. They don't want this in-fighting, they want to feel safe.
The question is, is the media coverage helping or hurting the sniper investigation?

Joining us now from Atlanta, Mike Brooks, CNN law enforcement analyst, and in Washington, "Washington Post" media critic, Howie Kurtz -- good morning, gentlemen.

HOWARD KURTZ, MEDIA CRITIC, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: Mike, has the media been irresponsible here?

BROOKS: I don't think -- the whole issue was around the Tarot card that they found at the shooting outside the school in Prince George's County. I don't think it was that big of a deal. I don't know why Chief Moose is making that big of a -- I think he was tired, he is frustrated at the continued shootings, and probably hadn't had much sleep. He's concerned about his citizens in Montgomery County, and he is concerned about the citizens around the Washington, D.C. area. I think this was maybe a little bit blown out of proportion. It could have been handled a little bit differently, maybe going to the news director of the certain station in Washington, D.C. that he had the major problem with, and talking to the news director there.

Having been in law enforcement in Washington for 26 years, and having worked with the media on a regular basis, I think I can tell you that sometimes the media -- the law enforcement will go to the media and say, we've got this information, can you not put it out right now, because it will really affect the case, and the media will usually cooperate. The relationship in Washington, D.C. with the media and the law enforcement has been great all along, and I think it will continue to be.

I think we just had this one little hiccup with this incident. It could have been handled a little bit differently. But I think we're seeing a lot of frustration on the side of the Chief Moose. ZAHN: Howard, in an interview earlier this morning, Chief Moose basically told Bill that what he hoped would have happened was that this information would have been held about the Tarot cards for another 24 hours or so because law enforcement wanted to communicate directly with this sniper.

Now, the fact remains that someone within that police department leaked this information to a reporter. Is it clear today whether that reporter was told that in reporting the information, it would compromise the investigation?

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: It's perfectly clear, in fact -- can I just jump in for one...

ZAHN: Yes, please.

KURTZ: I just got off the -- I just got off the air with Mike Buchanon (ph), the reporter for the local CBS station who broke the story. He says that the police source who gave him that Tarot card information wanted it out because the source believed this might actually help the investigation because it might prompt a tip from some member of the public who might have a deranged cousin who is in to Tarot cards or something like that, and more importantly, nobody at the CBS station, including the reporter, got any request from the police department, or Chief Moose's department, to hold the story. We live in this community. We're very, very concerned about having a serial killer on the loose, and I think any news organization would have been very low to go ahead in the face of such a request. No such request was made.

ZAHN: That's a very interesting point to make, because that is something that all of us have wanted to know all morning long.

Mike, go ahead.

BROOKS: No, I agree with Howard. That community -- I am a fourth generation Washingtonian, my cousin goes to the middle school where the young man was shot the other day. My mother lives there, my cousins -- my whole family lives in the Washington metropolitan area, Montgomery County, PG County.

Mike Buchanon (ph) has always been a friend of law enforcement, if you will, and always has worked with law enforcement in the past, and if he had of known that they wanted that held, I know that Mike for sure -- any other reporters in Washington, D.C. would have done that.

ZAHN: Howard, what also seemed to get under the skin of Chief Moose yesterday, in my interview with him, is the use of people -- former law enforcement officials -- we had a former FBI profiler on the air, talking about the case, and I have to say what I've heard on my show has been pretty generic information, no specific information given out on profiles. I'm just wondering where you fall on the productiveness of those kinds of interviews. KURTZ: There I think that the Montgomery County police chief has half a point. We've saw this in the Shandra Levy case, and every other high-profile criminal investigation. There's this whole army of ex-detectives and ex-profilers and experts who come out and give their views, and they obviously don't have any firsthand information on the investigation.

I don't think it necessarily hurts the probe, but I think that sometimes there is a lot of uninformed speculation that fills the air waves, as these things become a 24-hour frenzy, and I think the media are guilty of putting a lot of people out there, not intentionally, but this is the effect, Paula, who basically don't have any real hard information because the people who have the information, who are doing the investigation, generally aren't saying much.

ZAHN: But I have to say, in defense of some of the people we have had on the air, they have been very judicious and they haven't speculated, and they certainly do have a frame of reference, Mike.

Why wouldn't a guy who had 25 years of experience at the FBI not have insights based on what we're all learning at the same time here? Isn't there any value to that to the public?

BROOKS: No -- there is some value, but when you are dealing with this, and even some of the profilers who are working the case that I know, they're having a hard time putting a profile together, and to speculate about a profile, you know, male, female, 18 to 25, sometimes that's kind of stepping out on the ledge, if you will. But in this particular case, I don't think it has been -- has affected the case that much.

You know, me being one of the talking heads that Chief Moose was talking about, I'm very careful when I give information to make sure -- I will say, it's speculation at its best. But -- and knowing some of the information from this, and also from some of the other cases that I comment about, firsthand because of some of my sources that I still have in the Washington, D.C. area, but we have to be very careful.

The news agencies, also, have to be very careful about the people they put on the air.

ZAHN: Sure.

BROOKS: There was one news agency in particular that had a military expert, they were saying he was a former officer, and they didn't vet him, and they found out that, in fact, he had served very little time, if any, in the military.

ZAHN: Who was that, Mike?

BROOKS: We don't want to say that.

ZAHN: Why? Why don't you want to say?

BROOKS: It was Fox News. ZAHN: You said it.

BROOKS: It had that military expert. There you go.

So -- I think it's up to the news agencies, also, to be very careful about the people that they get, and make sure they vet these people before they put them on the air

ZAHN: That is a very good point, and we do that here at CNN. Mike Brooks, Howard Kurtz, thanks so much. Appreciate both of your perspectives.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 10, 2002 - 09:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper killings in the Washington area have brought a chill of fear to the region, and a swell of media coverage. Montgomery County's police chief lashed out yesterday at the media for reporting leaked information, and this morning he seemed much more conciliatory, saying he's heard from the public and the public very much wants law enforcement to work closely with community leaders and the media. They don't want this in-fighting, they want to feel safe.
The question is, is the media coverage helping or hurting the sniper investigation?

Joining us now from Atlanta, Mike Brooks, CNN law enforcement analyst, and in Washington, "Washington Post" media critic, Howie Kurtz -- good morning, gentlemen.

HOWARD KURTZ, MEDIA CRITIC, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: Mike, has the media been irresponsible here?

BROOKS: I don't think -- the whole issue was around the Tarot card that they found at the shooting outside the school in Prince George's County. I don't think it was that big of a deal. I don't know why Chief Moose is making that big of a -- I think he was tired, he is frustrated at the continued shootings, and probably hadn't had much sleep. He's concerned about his citizens in Montgomery County, and he is concerned about the citizens around the Washington, D.C. area. I think this was maybe a little bit blown out of proportion. It could have been handled a little bit differently, maybe going to the news director of the certain station in Washington, D.C. that he had the major problem with, and talking to the news director there.

Having been in law enforcement in Washington for 26 years, and having worked with the media on a regular basis, I think I can tell you that sometimes the media -- the law enforcement will go to the media and say, we've got this information, can you not put it out right now, because it will really affect the case, and the media will usually cooperate. The relationship in Washington, D.C. with the media and the law enforcement has been great all along, and I think it will continue to be.

I think we just had this one little hiccup with this incident. It could have been handled a little bit differently. But I think we're seeing a lot of frustration on the side of the Chief Moose. ZAHN: Howard, in an interview earlier this morning, Chief Moose basically told Bill that what he hoped would have happened was that this information would have been held about the Tarot cards for another 24 hours or so because law enforcement wanted to communicate directly with this sniper.

Now, the fact remains that someone within that police department leaked this information to a reporter. Is it clear today whether that reporter was told that in reporting the information, it would compromise the investigation?

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: It's perfectly clear, in fact -- can I just jump in for one...

ZAHN: Yes, please.

KURTZ: I just got off the -- I just got off the air with Mike Buchanon (ph), the reporter for the local CBS station who broke the story. He says that the police source who gave him that Tarot card information wanted it out because the source believed this might actually help the investigation because it might prompt a tip from some member of the public who might have a deranged cousin who is in to Tarot cards or something like that, and more importantly, nobody at the CBS station, including the reporter, got any request from the police department, or Chief Moose's department, to hold the story. We live in this community. We're very, very concerned about having a serial killer on the loose, and I think any news organization would have been very low to go ahead in the face of such a request. No such request was made.

ZAHN: That's a very interesting point to make, because that is something that all of us have wanted to know all morning long.

Mike, go ahead.

BROOKS: No, I agree with Howard. That community -- I am a fourth generation Washingtonian, my cousin goes to the middle school where the young man was shot the other day. My mother lives there, my cousins -- my whole family lives in the Washington metropolitan area, Montgomery County, PG County.

Mike Buchanon (ph) has always been a friend of law enforcement, if you will, and always has worked with law enforcement in the past, and if he had of known that they wanted that held, I know that Mike for sure -- any other reporters in Washington, D.C. would have done that.

ZAHN: Howard, what also seemed to get under the skin of Chief Moose yesterday, in my interview with him, is the use of people -- former law enforcement officials -- we had a former FBI profiler on the air, talking about the case, and I have to say what I've heard on my show has been pretty generic information, no specific information given out on profiles. I'm just wondering where you fall on the productiveness of those kinds of interviews. KURTZ: There I think that the Montgomery County police chief has half a point. We've saw this in the Shandra Levy case, and every other high-profile criminal investigation. There's this whole army of ex-detectives and ex-profilers and experts who come out and give their views, and they obviously don't have any firsthand information on the investigation.

I don't think it necessarily hurts the probe, but I think that sometimes there is a lot of uninformed speculation that fills the air waves, as these things become a 24-hour frenzy, and I think the media are guilty of putting a lot of people out there, not intentionally, but this is the effect, Paula, who basically don't have any real hard information because the people who have the information, who are doing the investigation, generally aren't saying much.

ZAHN: But I have to say, in defense of some of the people we have had on the air, they have been very judicious and they haven't speculated, and they certainly do have a frame of reference, Mike.

Why wouldn't a guy who had 25 years of experience at the FBI not have insights based on what we're all learning at the same time here? Isn't there any value to that to the public?

BROOKS: No -- there is some value, but when you are dealing with this, and even some of the profilers who are working the case that I know, they're having a hard time putting a profile together, and to speculate about a profile, you know, male, female, 18 to 25, sometimes that's kind of stepping out on the ledge, if you will. But in this particular case, I don't think it has been -- has affected the case that much.

You know, me being one of the talking heads that Chief Moose was talking about, I'm very careful when I give information to make sure -- I will say, it's speculation at its best. But -- and knowing some of the information from this, and also from some of the other cases that I comment about, firsthand because of some of my sources that I still have in the Washington, D.C. area, but we have to be very careful.

The news agencies, also, have to be very careful about the people they put on the air.

ZAHN: Sure.

BROOKS: There was one news agency in particular that had a military expert, they were saying he was a former officer, and they didn't vet him, and they found out that, in fact, he had served very little time, if any, in the military.

ZAHN: Who was that, Mike?

BROOKS: We don't want to say that.

ZAHN: Why? Why don't you want to say?

BROOKS: It was Fox News. ZAHN: You said it.

BROOKS: It had that military expert. There you go.

So -- I think it's up to the news agencies, also, to be very careful about the people that they get, and make sure they vet these people before they put them on the air

ZAHN: That is a very good point, and we do that here at CNN. Mike Brooks, Howard Kurtz, thanks so much. Appreciate both of your perspectives.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com