NBC’s Pete Williams talks to the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple about the shooting in Connecticut.
Specifically, he discusses the fact that he, along with CNN, Fox News, the AP and many other news outlets, originally pegged the shooter as Ryan Lanza, when in fact it was his brother Adam Lanza.
“I’m sure that every news organization that printed ‘Ryan Lanza’ regrets it,” says Williams. “I don’t know what to say beyond that. I don’t like to report things that are not accurate.” Law enforcement officials who’d whispered the wrong name, says Williams, “were genuinely concerned about it when they learned” the truth.
Law enforcement officials and an inter-agency bulletin pegged Ryan as the shooter though police declined to officially announce the name until this weekend, after they were completely certain.