CNN is covering a live, ongoing law enforcement crisis on Capitol Hill primarily with political pundits.
Yes, the politics are important, and the network would be remiss to ignore the root causes of today’s crisis. But we could use a more measured and technical approach to this tinderbox.
It would be nice to know why the Capitol Police failed so spectacularly this afternoon. How did the Trump supporters end up in an armed standoff? Why is it taking so long to respond? Where is Mayor Muriel Bowser?
If this happened in any other country, they’d call on one of a myriad of law enforcement experts. The choice to rely on political talking heads is not helpful.
Ariana Pekary is the CJR public editor for CNN. She was an award-winning public radio and MSNBC journalist for two decades. Now she focuses on the systemic flaws of commercial broadcast news. She can be contacted at publiceditors@cjr.org or on Twitter @arianapekary.