Sunday, June 03, 2007
'UNCONFIRMED REPORT' OR 'FALSE ALARM?'
Blogger Joshua Rosenau, he who thinks Thoughts in Kansas, passes on some thoughts about KU's updated security since the VT shootings. Specifically, KU's public safety department sent out what Rosenau was a false alarm about an alleged rifleman on the campus. He criticized all the fuss over an unconfirmed report.
The first comment attached to the post appears to be written from someone at the Lawrence Journal-World, who alleges that there was so much buzz about a shooter that the university HAD to put out some sort of warning.
According to the reporter's comment, the story behind the story is that there was scanner traffic that had to be investigated. Given that many law enforcement officers responded, and that anyone who was there would have seen all those officers, the paper felt it had to put a post on its Web site. However, people who saw the post complained that they DIDN'T get notified from KU's new system. Nevertheless, Rousenau said the false alarm wasted his time and criticizes the media for biting on it. "Unconfirmed reports, as anyone in the news business will tell you, only create fear and confusion," he writes.
The exchange shows the difficulty of informing a student populace of a potential threat. LJW is taking a hit for reporting the police action (even though it later identified it as a false alarm) and KU is getting hit for letting the LJW post the first information about the unconfirmed report.
Maybe this makes me flippant and trite, but the spelling errors in the KU security e-mails bug the heck out of me. A "uconfirmed" report? A "permeter" search? Those are the kind of misspellings that would leave me doubled over in pain, leaving myself unable to run from a crazed shooter.
The first comment attached to the post appears to be written from someone at the Lawrence Journal-World, who alleges that there was so much buzz about a shooter that the university HAD to put out some sort of warning.
According to the reporter's comment, the story behind the story is that there was scanner traffic that had to be investigated. Given that many law enforcement officers responded, and that anyone who was there would have seen all those officers, the paper felt it had to put a post on its Web site. However, people who saw the post complained that they DIDN'T get notified from KU's new system. Nevertheless, Rousenau said the false alarm wasted his time and criticizes the media for biting on it. "Unconfirmed reports, as anyone in the news business will tell you, only create fear and confusion," he writes.
The exchange shows the difficulty of informing a student populace of a potential threat. LJW is taking a hit for reporting the police action (even though it later identified it as a false alarm) and KU is getting hit for letting the LJW post the first information about the unconfirmed report.
Maybe this makes me flippant and trite, but the spelling errors in the KU security e-mails bug the heck out of me. A "uconfirmed" report? A "permeter" search? Those are the kind of misspellings that would leave me doubled over in pain, leaving myself unable to run from a crazed shooter.
Labels: EDUCATION, MEDIA, SECURITY
// posted by MoJoe @ 20:44 
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If you're flippant and trite, then you're in good company, 'cause so am I!
Thanks for sending these typos to me for my site! :)
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Thanks for sending these typos to me for my site! :)
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