Being first isn’t always the best thing
Jan. 26, 2020 is a day Lakers fans will not soon forget. It marks a day of great loss and sorrow not only for them, but the families of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; Christina Mauser, Ara Zobayan and Sarah and Payton Chester.
They all perished in a helicopter crash Sunday morning near Calabasas. They were en route to a basketball tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park.
The helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76B, in which the group was traveling, left the John Wayne Airport in Orange County just after 9 a.m., then made a U-turn in the Calabasas area, climbed, then made a steep descent, according to news reports.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopters were grounded that morning because of the fog covering the area.
NPR is reporting that the aircraft was flying under “special visual flight rules,” meaning Zobayan (the pilot) had been granted a request to fly in challenging conditions.
“An aviation weather advisory for Sunday morning had warned pilots that poor visibility would require them to navigate by Instrument Flight Rules — using their cockpit systems to get through cloud cover,” the NPR report says.
The investigation is ongoing and it’s way too soon to know what caused the crash.
The news hit social media and spread rapidly to TV news and other media outlets. It was said that TMZ broke the story and there was tons of speculation as to how many were on board and who they were. It was immediately announced that Kobe
Bryant and his daughter Gianna were two of the victims, but it took a bit longer for the other passengers to be identified.
It was first reported that a total of five were onboard, then it was six, then eight, then finally, nine.
We understand the importance of breaking a story, but it’s best to have the most accurate information, so the public is informed and not left guessing and trying to fill in the blanks.
In this age, where lots of folks get their “news” and information from social media, being accurate is beginning to take a backseat to being first.
No wonder people accuse the media of reporting “fake news.” It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s speculation, sometimes.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference Sunday, to address the tragedy. During the conference, he talked about TMZ “breaking” the story and seemed critical of them.
“There was wide speculation as to who their identities are, however it would be entirely inappropriate right now to identify anyone by name, until the coroner has made the identification through their very deliberate process, and until they’ve made notifications to next of kin,” he said. “It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loves ones perished and you learned about it from TMZ. That is just wholly inappropriate. So we’re not going to be going there.”
He made a very good point. No one knew whether any of the family members had officially been notified, yet it was announced that Kobe and Gianna Bryant were on board. In fact, that led the headlines throughout the day and into the night on TV news.
Slowly, the other victims’ identities were revealed, as their families got the news.
Breaking a story is always a priority for a news outlet, but when dealing with death, making sure the family knows about it before you announce it to the world, is more important than being first.
Our hearts go out to all the families impacted by this tragedy.
Announcing a death is never easy, but when the family finds out from a “media” source, it’s that much worse.