Meet Jesse McKinley, Transcriber for the New York Times

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

From the paper of record:

False Report Cited in Shift of Torch Route

By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: April 11, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - A false report on a police scanner helped persuade city officials to alter spontaneously the Olympic torch route on Wednesday, Police Chief Heather Fong said Thursday.

Chief Fong said in a news conference that the police had been told that a Chinese Olympic bus had run over and injured protesters on the planned route along the waterfront. Chief Fong said she did not know which officer or agency issued the report, adding, "Somehow we were given that information."

The chief said protesters surrounded and vandalized an Olympic bus that carried members of the relay's delegation and that protesters believed carried the torch. No one was injured or arrested at the scene.

Maybe she got it from Calitics, we had pics up within 5 minutes and in the third you can see a protester crawling out from under the bus. The bus did run over people, it is a miracle somebody was killed. He kept driving into a crowd of people, watch the video.

While it is fine to print that Fong said it was a false report, maybe put that in the context of what actually happened. For instance, investigate whether it was false? That would have changed the headline. And if a report came over the police scanner that a bus ran over people, isn't the normal response to send the police to come and immediately arrest the driver of the bus? Why didn't that happen? Has it even yet happened? And why did a police motorcade rush an empty bus in the first place? And note that the bus scandal only occurred after the motorcade left the route of the torch rely. Just writing down the Chief's C.Y.A. quotes around the pivotal point in the protests it not journalism.