It’s Always Wrong

There is an old saying in the Army; “The First Report is Always Wrong”.

It’s a tough thing to swallow for many of us because we are normally people of action. We receive information and we are trained to act on it. We are decisive people by nature, so we also tend to act on information quickly. What many of us learn over time, one of those hard lessons we all learn, is that the first report is wrong in some form or fashion.

We try to teach our junior leaders to only report what you KNOW to be true. Do not analyze. Do not make conclusions. Report only what you see or you can confirm to be true. Send raw data. Let those above you with a little more experience, and a little bit more time, analyze the data to come up with some conclusions. This tends to be the most effective way to minimize crappy initial reports.

Even those leaders, the ones with more experience and time, can jump the gun and act before they have the whole story. I’m guilty of it. Some of the best leaders I know are guilty of it. Shit happens. But, we try to show what we refer to as Tactical Patience when you have the opportunity. In short, don’t jump to conclusions if you don’t have to and gather as much information as you can before you absolutely MUST act. This tends to save both time and effort on behalf of everyone. Sometimes it even saves lives.

I will tell you, Tactical Patience is something the current mass media absolutely lacks. In fact, they plain old suck at it. Plain and simple. The average American’s short attention span and absolute NEED to have information RIGHT NOW has driven our media to report first and verify later. It borders on slander and is, at a minimum, negligent.

Over and over, story after story, our media continues to fail us as a population. No matter the station, the network, the news agency, newspaper, or website, they are all rushing to get the story out first no matter how accurate, or inaccurate, it is when they broadcast it to the masses. Shameful and unprofessional. By the time the real story comes out, with the most accurate details and the highest level of truth, many of the media sources have actually stopped reporting on it. And those that do? They barely, rarely, retract or correct the initial false reports they spewed.

We owe it to ourselves, especially if the media isn’t going to do it, to show that Tactical Patience and watch and listen for the real story to emerge. Don’t buy into the bullshit that comes out immediately. Wait, read more from more sources, research, demand accuracy. When the story comes out and the details are vetted, THEN decide what the truth is.

Remember, the First Report is ALWAYS Wrong.