NBC News shows how not to atone for a mistake

NBC News chief medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman and her team were exposed to Ebola while reporting from Africa. Ashoka Mukpo, the team's cameraman, was infected with the disease and is now being treated in Omaha.

Upon their return to the United States, Snyderman and the rest of her crew told the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local health officials, and, with great fanfare, NBC viewers that the entire team would voluntarily remain in isolation for three weeks.

News broke this week that Snyderman violated the self-imposed quarantine. Snyderman was spotted at a New Jersey restaurant on Oct. 9. It is unknown if she visited other public places.

Trying to get out in front of the story, NBC News and Snyderman issued a statement during the Monday broadcast. Now that we know it was the medical professional herself who disregarded public safety, Monday's statement calls into question NBC's judgment as much as it does its once highly respected medical expert.

The network news organization and its medical correspondent owed the public an apology for Snyderman's careless behavior. Instead, NBC and Snyderman issued a statement that failed to mention it was Snyderman who broke the quarantine and, more important, failed to disclose any details about how, when and where Snyderman went during her escape from quarantine.

Snyderman should have fessed up and taken responsibility. She did not and, for that, NBC and Snyderman should be ashamed. Snyderman put others at risk and Monday's NBC News statement makes it appear NBC is more concerned about preserving its reputation and that of its senior correspondent than reporting on the wrongdoing of one of its own.

Anchor Brian Williams read this statement on Monday: "While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed."

Snyderman said in a separate statement, "We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal. As a health professional, I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused. We are thrilled that Ashoka is getting better and our thoughts continue to be with the thousands affected by Ebola whose stories we all went to cover."

After learning of Snyderman's transgression last Friday, New Jersey health officials issued a mandatory quarantine for the NBC team of journalists that will be in effect until Oct. 22.

NBC News and Snyderman were less than forthcoming with the public. This is disappointing. When trying to earn back public trust after a mistake is made, organizations and those who work for them need to openly share facts and explain what is being done to prevent that trust from being broken again.

Instead, NBC News and Snyderman tried to distract the public from her role in the story. They owed viewers details about how the senior medical editor put her neighbors in danger. The apology needed to come from Snyderman. Instead it was made to sound that someone else on her team transgressed.

Moreover, Snyderman's claims that as a health professional she knows she poses no risk to others makes one wonder if the doctor first agreed to the 21-day quarantine out of concern for other's health or NBC News' ratings.

It is fair for us to expect better from a physician and a leading national news organization.

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This entry was first published in the print edition of the Des Moines Register. 
Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com