Media must do better in pursuit of `breaking news'

It’s often too difficult to get clear and accurate information right after a sensational breaking news event.

This is completely understandable because all the facts are not immediately available to the press and the people responsible for disseminating the details.

I have experienced the pressure that all sides are under to get the information out as quickly as possible, but there’s real danger in reporting inaccurate information.

That’s when opinions are quickly formed and reputations are sometimes tainted, if not ruined.

This week we experienced two glaring examples of that. I’m obviously talking about the brutal murders of two doctors at the luxury penthouse on Dorchester Avenue and the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

For hours, in an effort to get it first, some of our local and national media networks were filled with premature, speculative and inaccurate information on the South Boston case. For three days in a row, we heard conflicting reports. Sources with very little firsthand information were quick to go live with so-called “Breaking News.”

Yes, the media has an important job to do, but they must not speculate as to what happened. What the early reporting did to the doctors’ loved ones was uncalled for and what the firing of Comey did was completely politicize the FBI.

Confidence in our professional health care providers and law enforcement officials is sacrosanct. The public depends on both in a time of crisis.

We must be cautious in undermining the good name of people that the public depends on. I spent three hours talking to people at Copley Place yesterday and they expressed outrage over what went on from Boston to Washington.

After leaving noon Mass at St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential and walking home to South Boston, my wife and I were stopped by people who wanted to comment about both events.

Hate, division and partisan politics don’t have to be a major part of the conversation. We heard Father Daley beautifully talk about trust in his homily on Sunday at St. Brigid Church.

Yet, for the next three days, all we heard about is a brutal double killing and political division. I was happy to get home and find Dermott Murray, a fine young student from Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury who wanted to interview me for a school project about how we can all work together to build a better and more caring Boston.