Jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst seems to be a nasty habit that television news channels have taken a step too far, especially following the attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, and even before then, TV media tends to exploit a situation before they have all the facts.

The worst culprits are the 24-hour news channels. CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are all notorious.

Not to say that all news channels are guilty, in fact, most local stations are pretty good about getting their facts straight before airing news.

But, in general, television media is notorious for throwing out news bits as soon as they hear them, often without taking time to check all the facts.

This especially has been true over the last few weeks, as all the 24-hour news channels have focused solely on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On the day of the attacks, like almost everyone else in America, I was glued to the TV. That is when TV news plays its most vital role: Immediate visuals and information about breaking news.

Where the cable news has failed us, though, is in following coverage. You cannot tell me that the only events happening in the world revolve around these attacks. While obviously most of the newscast will be devoted to the attacks, there need to be other events covered as well.

And, by making the attacks their only news, the channels are scraping for any new information they can get at a moment’s notice, both to fill their news time and beat the other stations to the punch.

I can’t count how many times in the last few weeks I have seen a report on a new anthrax case, or a new threat, or the possibility of another attack and then seen those reports retracted or corrected within the course of a few hours’ time.

While the threats are all real and should be taken seriously, telling people about every possible anthrax case only spreads fear and uncertainty to a nation already filled with anxious people. And the later news that the seven people that were earlier reported to have possible symptoms of anthrax, have now been found to really have the flu, doesn’t always get out with the vehemence the initial report had.

The purpose of the 24-hour news channels is sound; to get up-to-the-minute information out to people. We now need to make sure that all the information is as correct as it can be, and try not to focus on topics which will surely get ratings, but also spread fear.

n Shauna Gustafson is a journalism major major and a biweekly columnist for The Daily Eastern News. Her e-mail address is [email protected]. Columns are the opinion of the author.