News crews swarm San Bernardino shooters’ apartment

News this afternoon revisited its visit to the rental apartment of the attackers – Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik – in the San Bernardino killings.

Harry Houck, CNN law enforcement analyst, said on air, “Usually in an instance like this, if crime scene goes in and does the work and comes out, you will keep that scene locked up, and with the sign on board saying that you can not come in until the police release it. The fact is, maybe they did not do that here”.

Oh wait, what was that about the home of the alleged shooters not being a cleared crime scene? And “we turned (the house) over”, David Bowdich, assistant director of the F.B.I.’s Los Angeles office, said in a news conference Friday.

No law enforcement personnel were present on the scene when media entered the building.

FBI spokesman Lourdes Arocho told CNN “the search is over at that location”, but didn’t say whether it was still a closed crime scene, or still part of the ongoing investigation. Indeed every nook and cranny: As we have already written, Sanders, in a live romp through the apartment, showed photos and a California driver’s license – items that hadn’t come even close to being vetted for public exposure.

“Not the choice I would have made as the owner or the landlord”, Cooper said. The broadcast showed everything from photos of unidentified children to baby items to IDs and social security cards.

If we allow people’s names to be dragged through the mud without the proper channel of a court and a verdict then we are opening up the door for all sorts of wanton destruction to be leveled against the potentially innocent.

“There is a woman with a dog walking through the house”, a reporter said.

“CNN, like many other news organizations, was granted access to the home by the landlord”.

NBC, the parent network of MSNBC, along with other media outlets, gained access to the home of the married couple who shot up a health center in San Bernardino this week.

In a suitably weird twist, Callan was making his comments as CNN was airing a split screen with footage from inside the home, showing laundry baskets, documents, toys and other personal effects. “We regret that we briefly showed images of photographs and identification cards that should not have been aired without review”, the news organization said in a statement.