The sloppiest on-the-spot reporting I saw was on the June 22 edition of WPIX New York's "News at Ten." The broadcast that night led with reporter Marvin Scott on the scene of a subway shooting. This is a transcript of Scott's report:

"This is a very active crime scene, all this unfolding about an hour ago on the Seventh Avenue No. 1 line. Let's take a look at some of the video of the police activity. Scores of police and detectives on the scene. They're questioning more than a dozen witnesses. I spoke to one woman, Pauline Griffin, who was two cars back from where the shooting occurred. She said she heard two distinct shots, and the reports are all unconfirmed right now. Apparently, there was one shooter on the platform. When the doors of the train opened, a shot rang out, a man who was inside the train fell forward. Apparently, two shots. The victim, no identification at the moment, has been rushed to St. Vincent's hospital in very, very serious condition. Police reported that he was in cardiac arrest when he left the scene. They are searching for one to three possible suspects. Male -- the victim is described to be a male in his 20s. And the suspects, two or three suspects being sought, all male, black, ages unknown. Police have no idea what motivated this whole shooting. They are here questioning witnesses who have not been exposed to the media still standing here at Seventh Avenue and 23rd Street. A story still unfolding but what we know right now -- a man in cardiac arrest shot at least twice on the No. 1 train on Seventh Avenue, where we're reporting live right now. Marvin Scott, the WB 11 'News at Ten,' now back to you guys in the studio."

Scott's report is, judging from the videotape he shows, more chaotic than the crime scene. It takes him nearly halfway through the report to even tell us what happened (a man shot on the No. 1 train at the 23rd Street station). Even then Scott's reporting contradicts itself. The number of shots fired keeps changing from two ("she heard two distinct shots") to one ("a shot rang out") back to two ("Apparently, two shots") and maybe even more ("shot at least twice"). "Apparently" is, apparently, Scott's favored rhetorical device. He uses it twice here and three times in his follow-up. Here, it makes hash of his report. Listen to this phrase "... the reports are all unconfirmed right now. Apparently ..." Nothing can be apparent if all reports are unconfirmed. And Scott's next dispatch from the scene, halfway through the hour broadcast, shows just how sloppy he was here. Here's the transcript:

"Well, Jim, yes, the victim has died at St. Vincent's hospital. He was brought there in cardiac arrest. Apparently he had been shot in the head and once shot in the face. This all happened around nine o'clock on the Seventh Avenue line, the No. 1 train. A lot of police activity here right now, as you can see. Police have pieced the story together like this. Apparently two men, the suspects, boarded the train at 18th street. The victim jumped on that very same train just as the doors were closing. There was no contact between them. And as the police are telling it, as the train approached 23rd Street station, the two men approached the victim. No words, no argument, nothing was said. Suddenly shots rang out, two shots. That's what witnesses on the train are telling police. Apparently, there are more than a dozen witnesses. Some of them being led away in tears to the 10th Precinct where they are being questioned right now by detectives. Two suspects ran from the subway. They were last seen running southbound on Seventh Avenue. They were said to be in their 20s, male, black, one bald, and one described to be wearing jeans, white T-shirt and carrying a knapsack. Police say right now they're mystified. They're wondering whether something may have occurred before the three men entered the train which all ended in this shooting tonight. We're live on 23rd Street on the west side. Marvin Scott for the WB 11 'News at Ten,' Kaity back to you."

The shooter who was waiting on the platform in the first report has become two shooters inside the train in the second, a contradiction that could have been avoided if Scott, knowing, as he said, that all reports were unconfirmed, had simply reported a man shot on the train. Even in this follow-up, Scott's presentation continues to be distracted, the narrative of the events interrupted by extraneous details ("A lot of police activity here right now as you can see ... Some of them being led away in tears to the 10th Precinct where they are being questioned right now by detectives").

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