LaGuardia bomb scare coverage

So how does the media do on a Saturday morning in August when there's a bomb scare that shuts down all of LaGuardia?

Not so well.

The Notify NYC alert went out at 8 a.m. that all flights were canceled.

As I'm starting to gather links for this post now at 9:15 a.m., the New York Times has it front and center online, but it's entirely a story from the Associated Press. The AP picture, and thus the NY Times lead art, is from Twitpic.

By coincidence, it was the same Twitpic I posted about an hour ago on the NewYorkology story. (The photographer allowed AP to use the pix, he told me.)

The Daily News had a very good staff-written story very early on including an anonymous cop telling them the ruckus was over a drunk guy who said he had a bimb, and indeed had a fake device in his bag.

The Post had nothing earlier, not even AP, but now that have a staff-written story played big on the front page, along with the Twitpic image now distributed by AP.

I first learned of the event (prior to the 8 a.m. Notify NYC alert) from a tweet from my pal Marilyn Terrell at National Geographic in D.C.

The first best source I could find was CNN, which actually as best as I could tell was getting its info from AP. Although it was unclear to me if their first unsouorced on-air remarks were something they sourced themselves or did as an uncredited pickup.

As for official sources the Port Authority's website has zilch and its Airport e-mail alerts (which granted, I subscribed to the LGA feed after the airport was closed) has yet to send me anything other than a "welcome" e-mail.

It's now 9:40 a.m. and Notify NYC has not yet said the airport has reopened, though passengers using Twitter and reuters said it has.

I have yet to receive a single e-mail news alert from any i subscribe to - including the NY Times, MSNBC, Washington Post or AP.

Ok, here we go: Notify NYC says "8/1/2009 9:38:00 AM
LaGuardia Airport- Reopeded
Notification 2 issued August 1, 2009 at 9:40 AM. LaGuardia Airport has reopened at this time. Expect flight delays."

And just to clarify for people who aren't my regular readers, I'm not in any way saying Twitter is better than old-school journalism. It's an important suorce for finding leads and verifying facts. My concern is that it appears a huge majority of the news came through the Associated Press. Props also go to the Daily News, and later to Reuters for getting an official source to say the airport was open except for Concourse C. Those news outfits are vital for pulling the whole story together using both official and witness accounts and using good judgement and experience to determine which might be flawed -- and ask more questions -- if different versions are in dispute.

I was disappointed NYTimes went entirely with AP. And I was hugely disappointed the only e-mail news alert I got was from NYC.gov's Notify NYC.

Also, it was disappointing -- though not unexpected -- to see a few online blog-news outfits "reporting" the airport had been re-opened and not citing a source for their information. I wasted time trying to track down their info, which as best I could tell wasn't true.

Labels: media, nyc

- posted by Amy @ 8/01/2009 09:27:00 AM