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View Winners → Media Frenzy: Reporters Swarm San Bernardino Shooters’ Apartment
Opinion Dec 09, 2015
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The Fourth Estate Sale
By Terry Miller
In the wake of the mass murders in San Bernardino last week, the landlord of the killers who took 14 lives last Wednesday in San Bernardino allegedly allowed media access to their apartment in what was one of the most unprecedented and inexplicable scenes this reporter has ever witnessed following an investigation of a terrorist(s).
Some reports say the landlord opened the door and the media stormed the apartment en masse. Others say reporters broke in.
Whoever is correct, a herd of “journalists” armed with heavy broadcast cameras entered the Redlands, Calif. apartment where Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik lived last Friday. Some reports claim that a reporter removed a piece of plywood blocking the door that had been placed there by the FBI. He apparently said that he had permission from the landlord.
In a display that raised eyebrows about journalistic integrity, news outlets made live broadcasts of their reporters entering the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters like it was a feeding frenzy.
The FBI stated, in a press release, that they had completed their investigation of the premises last Thursday night and access was dependent on the owner/landlord of the property.
The conduct of these “hacks” (to coin a British publication’s common term for journalists) was stunning to watch and most unbecoming of any serious news organization.
Even the Old Grey Lady (The New York Times) admitted to being there and entering with a reporter and photographer. But it was not just hacks entering the macabre scene, apparently some curious neighbors out for a walk also popped in to see what they could find.
Who knows what was taken as a “souvenir” of this rather astonishing set of circumstances which led to this behavior.
Reporters showed anxious TV viewers the room of mass murderers Farook and Malik’s 6-month-old daughter, pointing to the obvious “this is the killers’ child’s crib and what appeared to be a prayer rug…”
Like vultures, the broadcast and print media rummaged through the items in the home as if it was a rather macabre garage sale.
In one clip aired, I witnessed “reporters” taking selfies in the apartment.
What has the Fourth Estate become?
Footage aired also captured a bed covered with papers, including a driver’s license, credit cards and copies of the Quran – even a bank statement, all clearly showing account numbers. Nothing was redacted until later when the press was criticized for such barbarous behavior.
Some outlets reported that the landlord let the press into the apartment. But in an interview with CBS News, the landlord denied that he had opened the building to reporters, claiming he opened the door and the media simply rushed into the apartment.
While any reporter probably would have entered the apartment based on the understanding that the landlord had approved it and it was no longer an active crime scene, many on Twitter pointed out that airing personal information about the shooters’ relatives puts those people at a serious risk. MSNBC aired an un-blurred driver’s license under the name Rafia Farook, who is Farook’s mother. The outlet also speculated that photos of a woman found in the apartment could be Malik, showing the photos on the live broadcast without verifying they were actually her.
“MSNBC and other news organizations were invited into the home by the landlord after law enforcement officials had finished examining the site and returned control to the landlord,” the outlet said in a statement. “Although MSNBC was not the first crew to enter the home, we did have the first live shots from inside. We regret that we briefly showed images of photographs and identification cards that should not have been aired without review.”
By all accounts, the scene inside the apartment was also a media whirl, with outlets jockeying for shots and rummaging through the home.
In addition to what can only be described as insane, hacks speculated on air about the couple leaving in a hurry just before the shootings last Wednesday.
“We executed a search warrant on that apartment, and last night [Dec. 3] we turned that over back to the [landlord],” said David Bowdich, assistant director at the FBI field office in Los Angeles. “Once we turn that location back over to the occupants of that residence or once we board it up, anyone who goes in at that point, that’s got nothing to do with us.”
Reporters were later removed from the apartment, though the circumstances of the expulsion were not clear.
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