Attacks on murder witness aimed at citizen journalism

Pastor Rick Altus consoles a Fort Hood soldier

Ron Ross

A soldier by the name of Tearah Moore was inside the hospital where some of the Fort Hood shooting victims of November 5 were taken. From her position she Tweeted minute-by-minute reports and sent photos as the wounded passed by.

Some people have criticised her for making the reports. She was disparaged for getting some of her facts wrong and some critics say that she should have either gotten out of the way or set down her cell phone and helped out. Many think she should never have pointed her cell phone camera at the victims and then uploaded the pictures to some website.

Some of the critics have used the Tearah Moore Tweets as an opportunity to criticise citizen journalism. But Moore, who is based at Foot Hood, was neither a journalist nor a citizen journalist as the nature of her Tweets have revealed. Her Tweets were only what she intended them to be – her immediate reactions to the horror she was witnessing. She was only a citizen who happened to be on the spot where news was happening and she shared what she saw with a few people who followed her on Twitter. That’s not journalism of any kind.

Tearah Moore on TwitterHowever, her actions pose some interesting questions for both professional and citizen journalists: How does any journalist justify taking notes or shooting pictures while someone is bleeding to death or being beaten or is in the midst of some kind of suffering? When is a photojournalist supposed to keep shooting and when is he/she supposed to put the camera down and lend a hand?

The fact is that professional photojournalists are famous for keeping their cameras running while a tragic event unfolds. How many network news helicopters flew over Katrina victims and photographed them waving helplessly from rooftops? Why didn’t they put down their cameras and help? I suppose some did, but many kept rolling to get the story. More than once I’ve shouted at the TV, “For crying out loud…set down your camera and lend a hand.”

Here’s another question: What if a cameraman from one of the major news networks just happened to be inside the same hospital where Tearah Moore was when the victims started coming in? Do you think his producers back in New York would have told him to “turn off that camera and help those poor people – we’ll get the story later”? Or do you think you would hear the studio-based news anchor say something like: “We have a camera live inside the hospital where the victims of the shooting are now arriving. We go there now. Cameraman Joe, what’s the scene like in the emergency room?”

And for those who criticised Moore for getting her facts wrong – give her a break. She probably got her information from the cable news outlets that were, at about the same time, broadcasting, “the Fort Hood shooter is dead.” In the midst of the pandemonium of the moment, even highly trained and experienced professional journalist sometimes get the facts wrong.
National Association of Citizen Journalists
At the National Association of Citizen Journalists, we charge our citizen journalists to strive for accuracy in their reporting and to always be aware of their humanity and the humanity of the people they cover. They should know intuitively when it is time to put down the camera or the pen and paper and to lend a hand.

But to criticise a traumatised soldier for factual errors reported in the midst of a chaotic situation is setting a standard that even professional journalists cannot be expected to attain. And to demand they turn off their camera and lend a hand is to make a declaration from a position of ignorance for what was really happening on the scene and in the moment.

* Dr Ron Ross is the head of the National Association of Citizen Journalists in America.