Last week, when a new bin Laden videotape surfaced, Fox News and MSNBC beat CNN to the punch on coverage, to the tune of 30 minutes. At the time, Inside Cable News noted a case of "bad timing": CNN had recently severed its ties with Reuters, who got a hold of the tape and disseminated it to its clients at Fox and MSNBC.

As it turns out, there was more to the story. ICN has since made contact with the "web trawler" who hooked up Reuters in the first place, and, as it turns out, the tape was offered to CNN, through its iReport feature, a half-hour before it was taken to Reuters. How did CNN lose the scoop? As it turns out, it may have had less to do with the CNN-Reuters relationship, and more to do with the obstacles newsgatherers face when simply trying to make contact with the big news organizations:

But this story is about more than just CNN's I-Report getting a bit of a black eye by not responding to the offer. This story is about how difficult it can be for people to get in touch with news organizations from outside. Note the names of who else he tried to contact but couldn't find an appropriate phone number. And all of this transpired before he reached Reuters by phone. CNN wasn't the only U.S. news organization that could have had the opportunity to get the video instead of Reuters if their contact information and instructions were more prominently visible and more publicly known.

For CNN's part, a spokesperson responded to ICN's request for comment by saying "Steps have already been taken to improve our process; however, CNN would not have done a deal with this guy to obtain the video." Curiously, the spokesman also offered, "There was little, if any, benefit to being 'first' with video in this case. All the networks aired this within the same hour." Of course, had they been first, they'd likely be singing a different tune.

ICN's interview with "Michael," the web-trawler who tried to get the bin Laden tape into the hands of the media, is recommended reading.

Related:
CNN's I-Report did not respond to Bin Laden video offer from web trawler... [Inside Cable News]
Reuters releases Bin Laden tape. CNN frozen out early due to dropping Reuters last week. [Inside Cable News]

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