Every week viewers call into our toll-free viewer hotline to share feedback about what they see on our air.
This week, many of you called in about the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. Some, like Sunny from Kansas, shared appreciation for our breaking coverage.
"I've had several different news stations on, going back and forth to one, to the other. Scripps is doing a better job of overall covering every aspect of this incident, above 'Face the Nation' and 'Meet the Press' and all the regular other major stations. I think you're doing an extraordinarily good job," Sunny stated.
Others were seeing lots of information out there and wondering when we would report it, like Chris from Oregon who said, "There was some information that the people in the stands actually saw the shooter climbing up and were trying to get the Secret Service and the security people to pay attention. ... I saw it on another news agency."
There was also Christina, who pointed out video circulating on social media.
"You guys are reporting live now ... and he said that hopefully soon there will be a video out of the shooter because surely someone caught it. It's already out. It's on Twitter. It's on TikTok," Christina said.
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In a fast-moving and high-stakes situation like this, know that we at Scripps News make sure everything we put on our air is vetted and accurate. We care more about being right than being first.
So how do we decide when to report a new development?
Our first step is always to independently confirm the information ourselves if we can. Our journalists research, dig through official records, and reach out to their sources to do so.
If the new information is in a photo or video, we use visual verification techniques asking ourselves the following questions: Does it match other verified visuals? Are there any indications it could be AI-generated? Does the metadata match what the visual supposedly shows?
If those questions point to a credible source, we bring that new development to you and tell you where it came from.
That was the case for the examples some of you called about.
We were one of the first news organizations on television to report Saturday's assassination attempt — and we were able to do that because our correspondent Alex Miller was there.
We saw many shaky claims online immediately after, but everything we went to air with went through multiple layers of verification — and we tossed out a lot.
For example, initial reports said the former president's injury may have been caused by broken glass from his teleprompter. Those reports circulated on social media with attribution to anonymous law enforcement officials.
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We didn't pick up that claim of injury from broken glass, despite its prevalence on social media — and we're glad we didn't, because as of yet there is no evidence to suggest anything other than a bullet caused the injury, and we've since seen images of the teleprompters with no apparent damage.
When major news breaks — and this assassination attempt is a perfect example — there is often more "bad" or erroneous information than good, especially online. So, while we'll bring you what we know as quickly as possible, know that we view our responsibility to be accurate as our most important promise to you. And sometimes, the verification process takes a beat.
Keep letting us know how you think we're doing. If you have an opinion or thoughts on any parts of our coverage, reach out, via our Scripps News Viewer Hotline at 1-833-4-SCRIPPS.
