Fox News apologises for Baltimore police shooting report: 'We screwed up'

[umbertino]

Baltimore police unambiguously contradict conflicting media reports of shooting of black man over what appears to be a Twitter-related misreading

 

 

Nicky Woolf in New York

@nickywoolf

 

Monday 4 May 2015 21.30 BST

 

 

 

Conflicting and confused news reports of a shooting incident in still-fraught Baltimore – including by Fox News – have been unambiguously contradicted by city police, causing a surreal scene on social media and cable TV and almost triggering a return to Monday’s violence.

 

The police department sent a tweet that the reports were “NOT true”, though added that a man with a handgun had been arrested at the intersection of North and Pennsylvania avenues, where crowds quickly gathered following the reports.

 

The junction of North and Pennsylvania avenues was the epicenter of Monday’s riots, and a focal point for the week-long protests against the death in police custody of Freddie Gray.

 

 

Baltimore Police ✔ @BaltimorePolice

The reports of a man being shot at North and Pennsylvania Ave are NOT true. Officers have arrested a man for a handgun at the location

9:23 PM - 4 May 2015

•  
• 1,876 1,876 Retweets
• 565

 

 

Baltimore police have been using their Twitter feed during the last week’s events to keep people and the media updated on events; but they have also continued tweeting other, unrelated crimes that have occurred throughout the city.

 

So when early reports of a firearm incident at the junction of North and Pennsylvania avenues came in, someone at Fox News appears to have checked the Twitter feed and seen this:

 

Baltimore Police ✔ @BaltimorePolice

Shooting: 2500 block Marbourne Ave. Man reported to be shot multiple times. Southern District detectives investigating.

8:36 PM - 4 May 2015

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• 151 151 Retweets
• 46

 

 

 

Apparently assuming the two incidents were one and the same, Fox News began reporting that someone had been shot “multiple times by police”. Their story is still up, now saying that Baltimore police “tweeted [that] the man had been shot several times”.

 

However, the 2500 block of Marbourne Avenue is in the outer suburbs of Baltimore – almost five miles away from the completely separate incident at Penn and North.

 

Few details are known about either incident at this point, which didn’t stop multiple outlets and hundreds of social media users leaping to conclusions with little or no factual evidence.

 

Eyewitness reports from the scene were confused and confusing. Manuel Rapalo, a reporter for Russia Today, who was in a nearby shop when the incident occurred, told the Guardian that he heard “a gunshot” and then saw a man being handcuffed. Police quickly used pepper spray to clear the area, Rapalo said.

 

Surreally, on television, Obama was speaking at an event for his My Brother’s Keeper Initiative as the scene from Baltimore was broadcast live.

 

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— Matt Sullivan (@sullduggery) May 4, 2015

Split-screen America, continued: pic.twitter.com/QzesYlpTtk

 

 

 

The police commander on the scene at Penn and North told the Baltimore Sun and other media outlets that the suspect’s own gun went off, injuring him.

 

Fox News host Shepard Smith

on air for the network’s reporting the incident as a police shooting.

 

“What happened is, we screwed up,” Smith said. “For the errors that we made here, we are deeply sorry.”

 

Spokespeople from Fox News, the Baltimore police department and mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

The mayor lifted a city-wide curfew on Sunday, following unrest in the wake of the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who was black, after being held in custody in a police van.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/04/fox-news-apology-baltimore-police-shooting-report-twitter

[Shabibilicious]

Apology accepted, Fox News.......hopefully ALL news networks will learn a lesson and realize ratings can be achieved through truthful means, rather than through haste.    

 

GO RV, then BV

[Jim1cor13]

 

So true Shabs, but apparently a few did not like that they apologized,

as Umbert got a few negs over a news show?

 

How or why do some folks think FOX is sacred? They embellish

just like the rest of the mindless news does. I found it wise to not believe

any of them. I do not allow them to pump their propaganda into my mind,

it is unhealthy.

 

Thanks Umbert!