Reporters are supposed to give us accurate news information. In some cases, with fast moving stories, information can be muddled. That is something I think everyone can understand. I get a little worried, no make that a lot worried, when reporters, seemingly to spark controversy or discussion, will mislead the public with a scandalous headline or speculate on long term impact on an event without giving the full facts in the story.

There is a local news show where the public is encouraged to comment on events brought up by reporters. I guess it might not fit a rigid definition of a news show, but I would expect the reporters who are bringing information to the public to be knowledgeable of what they speak of. It frustrates me watching this show some times because the reporters make comments about stories they bring up seemingly without doing the research, so when they comment it seems off base.

Today they brought up a story about Google Earth using military grade spy camera to use on their next generations of maps. They mentioned that the cameras were so sophisticated they could focus in on a four inch space. The reporters went on about how terrible this was because the cameras could focus into the homes of people, focusing in on items in the home. They speculated that this could cause criminals to 'case our homes' and also they talked about if there was a skylight and someone was nude the camera could catch them.

Of course, people posting comments thought this was terrible, fearing what could be done with the technology.

I find it impossible to believe not one of the reporters on camera has never used Google Earth. The main thing to understand is Google Earth has still photos. It isn't a live transmission. Anyone who has used Google Earth knows this. Also, as accurate as the mapping is, it is accurate at the time the photo is taken. A few weeks ago I used some Google Earth shots for a video presentation. I had to do some slight changes to the presentation because while Google Earth was great in giving me the zoom in I wanted, when the photos were taken the place I was looking for hadn't moved to its new location, so the spot I was looking at had another business there. The move had been done almost six months earlier.

What worries me about stories like this is information isn't accurately given to the public. There are probably thousands of people who watched the broadcast who will believe they can go on Google Earth and Google maps and see real time events happening. It doesn't work that way and the reporters should know it doesn't work that way. Maybe because the show doesn't represent itself as a news broadcast the reporters feel a bit freer in giving their off the cuff comments, but giving wrong information out, no matter the context, is not only sloppy reporting but detrimental to the public.