NBC, CBS quickly retract ID of Navy Yard shooter

Rem Rieder | USA TODAY

Once again, major news organizations have blundered on a huge crime story.

NBC News and CBS News today identified a suspect in the carnage at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., then rapidly retracted the story.

The embarrassing episode was reminiscent of similar overzealous reporting during the Boston Marathon massacre, when a number of news outlets prematurely reported that an arrest had been made.

CBS and NBC reported what they said was the name of the suspect in today's D.C. shooting. But very quickly they basically said, "Never mind."

At 12:58 p.m ET, Charlie Kaye of CBS took to Twitter to tweet, "BREAKING. @johnmillercbs advises the initial reports identifying the suspected shooter as Rollie Chance are wrong."

Seven minutes later, NBC's chief White House correspondent, tweeted, "NBC News: we are now NOT reporting name of shooter; retracting that report. deleting those tweets."

Covering a complex and fast-moving story such as the D.C. Navy Yard shooting, in which at least thirteen people died, is always challenging and filled with misinformation. But that's all the more reason to be extra careful not to ID someone as a mass murderer until the information is totally nailed down.