TV station owes viewers apology for story missteps

Editor’s note: In his role as media relations coach, the Kirkwood School District has hired Tripp for previous consulting work. He was not retained for this incident.

No other way to put it: St. Louis television station KSDK (Channel 5) really messed up in their attempt to expose school security flaws.

On Jan. 16, Channel 5 sent people to five area schools to check on security. One of them was Kirkwood High School.

The Channel 5 staffer was able to get in to the school unchallenged. He did, in fact, uncover what appears to be several flaws in the Kirkwood system.

But that’s where the good ends. After finally checking in at the office, and leaving his name and phone number, he disappeared.

School officials were concerned. They called the number on his phone, but it went to a voicemail. On the voicemail, he identified himself as being from Channel 5. So the school called Channel 5 for confirmation. But the station would not confirm or deny he was with the station, despite Kirkwood saying they would have to initiate a lockdown if they could not confirm his employment.

One source says Channel 5 claimed they did not want to confirm or deny because they were concerned Kirkwood might tell other school districts what they were doing and spoil the project.

In any case, Kirkwood initiated the lockdown.

When it was finally confirmed the person was a Channel 5 employee, the lockdown was ended. But not before it did considerable damage to Channel 5.

Social media was buzzing with angry parents and students complaining about Channel 5’s effort. Channels 2 and 4, NPR, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and several other national news outlets picked up the story.

It appears to have caught Channel 5 off-guard.

When the story actually aired Jan. 16, there was a terse, half-hearted apology. Then, the station played hero showing all the flaws they found.

But the backlash continued on social media as hundreds of comments, mostly against Channel 5, were posted.

Channel 5 made a serious mistake at this point by not issuing a more detailed heartfelt apology on Friday.

So the anger continued and festered until finally, on Sunday, anchor Mike Bush read what sounded as if it were a sincere apology without excuses.

Media outlets are very good when they try to put organizations’ feet to the fire. Most, like Channel 5, aren’t very good when it’s its own feet.

Have they learned their lesson? Only time will tell?

Will it affect the ratings with so many threatening to boycott the station? Perhaps, though over time, people tend to forget.

Finally, Channel 5 should remember it will be judged mostly not on what it did wrong, but how it handled the situation. In this case, they fumbled around for three days before finally recovering the ball.

* * *

This is the statement I posted on Channel 5’s Web site Jan. 17. It was the statement they SHOULD HAVE issued that day and is not dissimilar to the final apology they ended up airing (though they did not even try to remind people that some good may have come out of this as well):

KSDK Channel 5 suggested statement:

At Channel 5, our goal is to make a positive difference to people in our viewing area. To that end, we would first like to apologize to the people of Kirkwood, especially, Students, Parents and Staff at Kirkwood High School. Yesterday, we entered the high school to discover security leaks, which, in fact, we found. Unfortunately, after making the discoveries, we let the ball drop. Because of Kirkwood’s inability to confirm that a Channel 5 employee was the person testing their school security, they chose to lock down the high school. We understand this was not only an inconvenience but emotionally traumatic to many. We are very sorry for this. We should have immediately identified ourselves to authorities. This would have enabled us to present our findings without putting people through the lockdown experience. We pledge to try to do better planning going forward. At the same time, it is important to our community that Channel 5 (as well as other media in our area) continue to conduct investigative reporting. Sometimes exposing people or situations through investigative reporting is the only way to make things better for all of us in the region. We stand by that commitment as well. So we hope the community, especially Kirkwood, knows that we are sincerely sorry for what we put people though due to our lack of communication. We also hope we have helped make Kirkwood High School safer for students, staff and visitors because of the security flaws we revealed.

Mike Shipley, news director (or whomever)

* * *

Here are some sample (angry) social media comments:

Sara Edmundson Schwabe: “Little late. I guess when they didn’t get the reaction they wanted they apologize.”

Jane Thornquist Bogetto: “ ‘On behalf of NewsChannel 5, we recognize your concern and value your input in regards to our story on school safety. The lock down at Kirkwood High School was never our intent, and we are very sorry for any anger or inconvenience this may have caused.’ This is the email response I got from KSDK along with a request for my contact information so that a manager can call and talk to me about my concerns. Inconvenience?!!! What I want is for the station to express on air some responsibility for the trauma the incident caused. Had the station acknowledged that the reporter was on assignment when the district called the lockdown would not have happened.”

Patty Collins Brennan: “They apologized last night, except the apology had a ‘but’ in it. That nullifies it for me. I had two kids there, and they were scared.”

Sharon Crnko: “This was so wrong on so many different levels. Nick just dropped by and was still upset. A’s at Westchester and when he got the phone message, he called the school and ask if they were locking down too. He went and picked her up early. Even the parents that don’t have children at the high school were affected. I thought I read it is a felony to cause panic in a public place. What a world! Pretty soon there won’t be a news station or radio station that’s worth listening to. I know I’m finished with KSDK.”

William Entrikin: “First off, apologize to Kirkwood High School and the students whose education was interrupted in your quest for ratings. Second, pay the city of Kirkwood for the expense they incurred for the massive police response. … Finally, fire the producer who came up with this idea. When did it become a news stations responsibility to safeguard students’ safety? May a group of parents come down to channel 5 to test your safety protocol? Did you think for one minute what Kirkwood has been through?”

Jennifer Steinbruegge Wilton: “Where terrorizing families and interrupting school days come first! I hope Kirkwood School District and the city of Kirkwood are filing charges. This is the equivalent of setting off a fire alarm as a prank.”

Mark Wiley: “KSDK, this is a poor attempt to justify an action that, at best, was ill-conceived. As a parent of a student at Kirkwood High School, I find this “test” inexcusable. I received a message reporting a lockdown at the high school, as did my wife. We believed our child was under immediate threat and waited with anxiety for some word that everything was OK. Your ‘drill’ has lost my viewership; there are plenty of local news options run be organizations with a conscience.”

Lynn Wiseman Merritt: “Come on, Channel 5! Do you people have kids? Do you realize what a parent feels when their child’s school is on lockdown? Very poor reporting and investigating.”

Tracy Sinner: “Nice attempt to spin this in a way that makes you look less irresponsible. … Hopefully the correct actions are taken against not only this reporter but the news director and others who approved this ‘story’ as well. Numerous attempts were made to contact this individual at the phone number left at the school to no avail. And, as other news outlets were reporting the lockdown, you chose to stay silent on both your website and news channel. Furthermore, you have yet to apologize to all the students, staff and parents who were terrorized for more than an hour.”