Law officers at site of reported mass grave
Texas lawmen closed the country roads and started scouring the dusty ground late in the still-blazing afternoon in an isolated spot an hour-plus northeast of Houston, long beyond where the pavement turns to the Pineywoods.
I got my first message at 4:07 p.m. Central time. It started: “POSSIBLE MAJOR STORY…” It came in all caps, the Jesus-type of the digital age of newspapers. (If you don’t have enough gray hair to know the phrase “Jesus type,” it’s type big enough to be used only for the Second Coming. In the old days, block wooden type. You can buy it today in antique stores or E-Bay.)
Three minutes later the web producer who messaged me had it on the site. I don’t know who broke it: the digital editor for The Cleveland Advocate or a Houston TV station.Seems to be simultaneously.
First report: 25-30 bodies, mostly children.
Let me stop here and give full disclosure: I work for the parent company, ASP Westward, L.P., which owns Houston Community Newspapers, comprised of 30-plus papers and web sites ringing Houston, including The Cleveland Advocate, a small-town newspaper northeast of Houston. They took the story and ran, as did others nationally who followed.
This is the story of those 54 minutes of adrenalin rush, starting with horror and dread, ending with, oh well, thank goodness.
Within 10 minutes after HCN published the story, MSN was linking to it off its home page, along with a bunch of other national web sites. The HCN piece was riding the Twitter wave. Drudge was blowing it out of the water, Jesus-type style. One of HCN’s competitors, The Houston Chronicle had a story quoting The Cleveland Advocate, never a fun thing to do in a competitive environment, but always the right thing to do. It’s good to be fair.
At 5:30 p.m. Central, The New York Times sent an e-newsletter, quoting Reuters, reporting authorities may have found up to 30 dismembered bodies at the site.
The web was going crazy. Every story I saw was properly qualifying it, waiting for confirmation and actual reports of bodies.
At 6:01 p.m. I got a message from the content producer with a link and these words: “Source – Psychic tips to mass grave.” That came from the Chronicle and HCN did the right thing and quoted the paper. It’s good to be fair.
Today there will be stories from all around asking these questions:
• What did police know that lead them to close off two roads and start such a search?
• Was there previous experience with this tipster that gave the report particular extra credence, and led the police to act?
• Was it just good law enforcement, following a very bizarre tip, but in keeping with today’s headlines?
• Will the tipster be charged with anything?
But it’s not all about the legalese involved and law enforcement.
From a journalistic standpoint, a few items to consider:
• Be cautious and remember to follow normal journalistic standards, as HCN did.
• Don’t let the break slip away; web audience can turn in seconds; the old wire service “deadline every minute” saying doesn’t apply; think in seconds; you may break the story one minute, and lose the web traffic a minute later with another media outlet’s update.
• The web is a great equalizer; one smart, speedy reporter can lead the field, topping large news organizations with many reporters.
• The same urgency applied editorially by newspaper companies to coverage like this must be applied to figuring out the business side of online; they made their money from print for literally hundreds of years; now they need to figure out business side of the web, quickly; HCN is applying the same sense of urgency on the business side; not all newspapers are.
• Be prepared; HCN was able to react quickly for several reasons; it has a small but scrappy and energized web team; it is in the midst of an enterprising reorg of the editorial team for its 30-plus Houston papers that will keep the content flowing for print, but focus efforts on online in an aggressive manner;
• Lastly, remember the information pipeline is wide open, 24/7, worldwide; all the time; use it or lose it.
Now, what’s the next story?