It’s those anonymous sources
First, the news broke about Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones suffering an aneurysm. Then it was reported that she died, and subsequent reactions and tributes were starting to air on tv news.
Hours later I was doing a sweep of headline news online, and figured some outlets were pretty slow to catch up when I saw that the Congresswoman was listed ‘in critical condition.’
Turns out, the news of her demise was premature.
An already sad story on the serious medical condition of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) was made embarrassingly worse today by Capitol Briefing and other news outlets, as conflicting information prompted several erroneous reports that the lawmaker had died. As of this writing, she remains in critical condition in a Cleveland hospital.
An important stipulation, “as of this writing”, especially in such critical circumstances. But how did this happen?
Based on information from a reliable Democratic source and stories from other news outlets, Capitol Briefing reported at 2:10 p.m. that Tubbs Jones had died. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Associated Press, and CNN came out with similar reports at the same time, all based on anonymous sources. At that point, neither Tubbs Jones’s office nor the hospital had confirmed her death.
As one of the comments on that WaPo blog suggests, perhaps they should change that to read “information from a usually reliable Democratic source.” And….why did that source trump the Congresswoman’s own office and the hospital on this one?