And That's Terrible

The phenomenon known as "swatting" is a simple one. Someone calls a police department, and says that a serious violent crime and/or hostage situation is occurring at some or another address. The department's SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team swings into action, only to find out that a hoax has been perpetrated. If everyone involved is fortunate, no-one is killed prior to the deception being uncovered. Otherwise, as has been case on a few occasions, tragedy ensues.

The practice first entered the public's consciousness (and the lexicon) due to the swatting of individuals. But it also happens to organizations. In the case of the National Public Radio story that aired this morning, parties unknown called police departments to falsely report active shooters in schools.

The practice creates problems for a lot of people, not the least of which being the students, faculty and staff of a swatted school. And so this is something that seems newsworthy. Which made it surprising that the story that National Public Radio ran on the phenomenon this morning seemed completely devoid of information. The story purports to be about the lasting consequences of swatting schools, but other than the one mother saying her daughter was basically freaked out by what happened, it doesn't even live up to that.

The piece is basically a human-interest story speaking to the day's event. Which is marginally interesting, but it feels like something between a filler piece and a missed opportunity. Granted, I'm not a journalist myself, but surely, there is something more informative about the practice that could have been the basis for a story. Part of what's going on, I suspect, is that I'm not really in NPR's target audience, and their target audience is into this human-interest stories. There's also just a greater focus on human-interest stories in the media landscape in general, as they allow for news outlets to present their viewpoints by selecting the people whose stories they tell.