Debunking the national storyline is one reason #LocalJournalismMatters

For a brief moment the national media spotlight glared brightly on Tallahassee and its lonely white nationalist militiaman. 

The first headline broke at about 1 p.m: The gunman in the horrific Parkland school shooting, Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Republic of Florida, a local paramilitary organization. The leader of ROF, Jordan Jereb, claimed the connection in phone conversations to the Associated Press and Anti-Defamation League.

The narrative was instantly born: a future mass shooter training in the woods near Tallahassee under the banner of an established hate group. It became the talk of talking heads on TV and online headlines around the globe.

Jereb to us was known as the white supremacist next door. The guy on the side of the road waving his flag. Who regularly had brushes with the cops while riding his bike around town. Who sometimes littered driveways with racist propaganda. Who once faced charges for threatening the governor’s office and called himself a “right-wing extremist nut.”

So when the headlines hit, we were immediately skeptical. We posted a story saying what the national media was saying, and put the BIG caveat on it that the reports were unconfirmed and we were seeking proof. We added the very important background about his run-in with the law and we got to work.

The journalism axiom is "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." In this case you had the equivalent of a white supremacist with a rap sheet that included threatening public officials saying your mother loves you.

It needed checking out.

Breaking news reporter Karl Etters called up Jereb to get proof of the connection. Jereb, however, cut the call short to talk to ABC News.

Etters then went to our law enforcement sources, who told him they were looking for Jereb to confirm his claims. 

A couple of hours later, the Democrat became the first in the nation to report that local lawmen had found no connection between our solitary supremacist and the shooter who massacred 17 people in South Florida.

The real story:Local law enforcement: No ties between militia and Florida high school shooter

The correct storyline got the attention of the Drudge Report. It zipped around Twitter and social media. More than a thousand people were reading the story every minute up until midnight.

But the original storyline persisted. Even hours after Jereb called the whole thing a “legit misunderstanding” brought about by lack of sleep and a confusing number of Nikolases in the small group of ROFers, the discredited story kept appearing. 

At 9 p.m. Thursday, a local TV station posted a non-updated story on Facebook saying: “We’re learning 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who confessed to gunning down 17 people at a South Florida high school, may have had ties to the Capital City.” Commenters shouted down the post as fake news.

The next morning, a headline about his purported connections arrived in inboxes around the state in one of the morning political newsletters. Google “Nikolas Cruz and Tallahassee” and shake your head over the number of outdated stories in the 88,000 search results. Take some comfort in the fact that the correct story on Tallahassee.com leads those results.

Now’s a good time to mention that newsgathering in the culture of now is REALLY difficult. The demand is perpetual, the reporters are too few and the social media distribution channels are devoid of editors who fact check. And it’s all too easy to move forward without gut checking your conclusion that the “confirmation” of a known white supremacist just may not be a credible source. 

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I’m blessed to be part of an operation that tries to deliberate every decision, agonizes over every word and endeavors to consider every angle and impact of a story. I’ll also be the first to admit we sometimes make the short-sighted decision, choose the wrong word and fail to see every angle and impact of a story. It happens to all of us in this business. And it hurts – our credibility and us personally.

The job is a mighty calling with heavy responsibilities, and mistakes were made by those that initially spread this story.

Speaking as a small part of the much maligned media industry, we need to do better

Speaking on behalf of your local media, we did do better by adding background on the source’s questionable credibility and consulting the sources we have worked with over the years — sources the national media didn't have and didn't make the time to get.

It’s become a hashtag cliché but #LocalJournalismMatters.

William Hatfield is editor of Tallahassee.com and the Tallahassee Democrat. Email him at whatfield@tallahassee.com or call him at 599-2177.