Missing the Mark

In a 20-second sound-bite Sunday, the NBC program "Dateline" proclaimed U.S. Highway 2 one of the most dangerous rural roads in America.

If the newsgatherers at NBC had done some research they would have discovered that our segment of US 2 is bisected by two highways that are far more dangerous - US 93 in Montana and US 95 in Idaho.

We've had our share of fatalities on US 2 over the years but only one of the three deaths highlighted by Dateline actually occurred on that highway. The other accidents took place on other highways in the area. Unfortunately, Dateline didn't let the facts get in the way of their reporting.

There was great potential for the news program to do us some good on highway safety if they had only focused on the Swamp Creek section of US 2, which has seen its share of deaths. A good national piece of reporting could have placed pressure on the state to move a little faster on reconstructing this 12-mile section of highway.

On the plus side, local resident Larry Stroklund, a long-time American Legion volunteer who paints the white crosses along the highway, was interviewed driving in his car on the highway. Stroklund explained what the crosses signify - a highway fatality - and the hope it would serve as a caution or warning to other drivers.

Overall, the Dateline report simply served as a warning to avoid this highway if driving through Montana. They failed to mention that speed and poor judgment were the biggest causes in most accidents on US 2.

In a more serious failed journalistic effort, Newsweek is now retracting its story that copies of the Quran, the Islamic bible, had been desecrated by U.S. interrogators at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Violence had erupted in the Muslim world after the magazine published the original story and at least 15 people were dead in Afghanistan and scores more were injured in related rioting.

One critic, at the prestigious Poynter Institute - a journalism watchdog - reminded his colleagues that "we're not in the business of reporting what might be true, what could be true if only we know more. We are in the business of reporting what we know is true."

American media is far from perfect - nobody knows that better than those of us working for small papers, radio stations or even television outlets. But we are better than most of the popular faux pas would have the public believing. Errors at the national and international level impact the credibility of the whole industry.

The public does play an important part in accepting or rejecting our work and thus influencing the ultimate quality. - Roger Morris