What Would YOU Do: Reporter Leaking Breaking News

Posted on September 30, 2020 by

ALASKA, CP Army Hub Headquarters – Often, one may find themselves asking what they would do in any given CP Army situation. In this installment of What Would You Do, CP Army Hub’s very own Reporting Heads were asked what they would do if a Reporter leaked breaking news.

A major part of the Reporting Heads’ duties is to find news, regardless of how urgent the topic may be. These topics may be something that the community has not made aware of yet, and only our team of Reporters would know. Knowing upcoming topics and the possible severity of it comes with a great deal of responsibility. Mostly because leaking news without the entire context that a full report has can cause an array of misunderstandings or assumptions presuming the topic.

Reporting Heads were asked:

What would you do if a Reporter leaked breaking news?

–

LuciferStar, CP Army Hub’s Chief Executive Officer

That’s quite a sticky situation. Leaking any kind of breaking news would result either in a warning, suspension, or a complete dismissal depending on the situation. If it were a repeated conscious leak, then that’d serve as grounds for a removal, but all reporters are trained to ensure such incidents don’t occur. So it’d really depend on the context of the leak.

Pookie437, CP Army Hub’s Chief Executive Officer

Either give them a stern talking to or send them to the shadow realm, depending on if they’ve had a previous offense

Max, CP Army Hub’s Executive Producer

A reporter or reporting head leaking any kind of confidential information is a serious offence and will be met with the harshest of consequences. Obviously it depends on the person and severity of the leak, but the punishment could range from a demotion to a removal.

Cassie, CP Army Hub’s Vice President

That depends on the severity of the report! If it was an exclusive editorial or a piece of news CPAH received before it happened (think war plans or leadership changeups), I think I’d suspend them from reporting for a week or two and if it was a reporter, I’d make them restart at trainee. Anything less than that, I’d demote the reporter to trainee or have the trainee do additional posts in order to be promoted.

Sarahah, CP Army Hub’s Editor-In-Chief

If I am being completely honest, I do think this already occurs with day to day topics. Leaking breaking news isn’t something that is necessarily easy to do, as most of our topics are found once it has already gone public; such as a post or announcement via an army’s website or Discord server. Overall, anything truly news breaking will be not made aware to the reporters, and will be handled by an admin or reporting head. Though, if this were not the case and I were to find a Reporter leaking topics, regardless of it being urgent or breaking news, I would defintely ping my fellow Reporting Heads in the respective channel and discuss the situation at hand. I may have the assigned Reporter complete the post as soon as possible to clear up any tension that the leak may have caused. Depending on who is online, I may reach out to the indivudal who leaked to see what their thought process was and who they leaked to. If it was a first time offense for them, I probably wouldn’t encourage a demotion or them to be let go, just a warning and would advise fellow RH’s to keep an eye on them.

Scorpion Demon, CP Army Hub’s Editor-In-Chief

If a reporter or a trainee was ever caught leaking news before it was published, I think the person/people involved should be given a severe, serious warning. It’s not about the news, its about them breaking the trust that the admins put into them by granting them access to the website. Along with the warning, there would probably be a temporary demotion, and their permissions and access to the site would be temporarily revoked too. Overall, yes, there would be pretty serious and disastrous consequences. Above all of that, I don’t think they would ever be trusted in CPAH again with significant things, and they’d be loosing the respect of the reporters community for one. But I don’t really think they should be complete cut off, everyone deserves a second chance. That may not be true if its something way more serious like multiple instances of leaking.

Sheo, CP Army Hub’s Associate Producer

Panic. No. The news has been leaked, I’d do my best to aid in the recovery and halt the spread of such news but at the end of the day, it is now out there. In the situation of an accidental leak, I’d work with fellow reporting heads and the reporter to see how the information got out and if there is any way that it can be stopped from happening in the future. However, should that reporter in question purposely leak a breaking news story they knew was sensitive information… then it is bye-bye time for the reporter and anyone who aided them in the leak of the news and I know it’s not a world-ending business but what would be the point of reporting on the news if it was to be leaked every time something came up? I’d be suggesting to reporting heads that topics considered sensitive or secret should only be given to a trusted reporter or even a reporting head themselves. Now if a reporting head leaked such information…. well that’s a different story.

Rosie, CP Army Hub’s Associate Producer

oh wow. Fortunately this hasn’t yet happened, but if something like that did happen and i was the first to know about it, i’d imagine i’d go a bit like this: I would immediately ping an admin, probably max or cassie. I would then try to find out how the information was leaked, and how far it spread. I would then either dm the leaker myself and talk to them about it, or allow an admin to do it. Leaking is not a thing we take lightly, so the offending party would most likely be let go from staff.

Sophie, CP Army Hub’s Associate Producer

If a reporter leaked breaking news and I found out about it, I would report the situation to one of the admins first. Probably Cassie or Max, depending on who’s on at the time. Then, I would talk to the reporter in question and explain to them the severity of their breach of trust, while attempting to see how much information has been leaked and the reasons behind it. The next priority would be to finish the article as quickly as possible and to publish it, minimizing the spread of perhaps controversial or misinformed information. Depending on the reporter’s response, the admins or reporting heads would most likely decide on the consequences for the leak; firing the reporter wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if the breach was severe. Hopefully this never happens though! I trust my fellow reporters, they’re great. Reminder that CPAH is hiring! E7

–

In these responses, a majority of the Reporting Heads mention the release of or possible demotion of the reporter, as leaking upcoming news reports isn’t something that is tolerated. Overall, the chance of tension that is to arise from the topic would most likely be minimized if the reporters waited to discuss the news with others following the release of the post, and not before. Nevertheless, all of the reporters are trusted to not leak upcoming topics, no matter how breaking or ‘un-breaking’ it is.