Smith: Why SR Doesn’t Report Bomb Threats

There was a bomb threat (Thursday) at EWU that led to the evacuation of hundreds of students faculty and staff from campus buildings. We had a brief on the threat and evacuation posted on our website for a time. But our policy, in general, is not to report bomb threats unless the threat or evacuation actually has a more newsworthy impact or unless a bomb is actually discovered or some other specific factor makes the threat news. The reason we generally don’t report threats is that the prankster/vandals who make empty threats get off on the public attention their dispruption causes. The more empty threats you report, the more threats occur/Editor Steve Smith , News Is A Conversation. More here and: Daily Briefing discussion here

SR Blog Roundup:
* MasterCard of disguise /Amy Klamper, Cart Shark
* Friday’s Quickie Political Briefing /Jim Camden, Spin Control 2.0
* What is journalism revisited /David Laird, Community Comment
* Cyberbegging — the latest trend /Doug Floyd, A Matter of Opinion

Question: Should we report bomb threats in the paper and at SR.com?