How should media coverage be?

Wouldn't it be great if all news outlets showed restraint and decorum and lots of other old fashioned virtues when covering big, terrible tragedies? What's that you say? News coverage has changed? It's all Reddit and Twitter, not Cronkite and dignity? Too bad there isn't some kind of list of etiquette.


Oh look! Leave it to the ethical folks at Poynter to come up with a list of seven tips for covering last night's shooting. Think of it as an abridged Strunk and White for the aftermath of horrible events. Simple.


Or listen to the police chief in Aurora, Colorado. Apparently, not all social media is legit when it comes to sources. 


"A caution about social media. Please, as responsible journalists, be very careful. We are analyzing all social media that is out there about this event, and I can tell you that we are already finding that there are already a   lot of pranks. There is even someone who called a national media station and represented [himself] to be me."


Still have questions about whether you should cover a piece of tragic breaking news? Check out this handy, hand-drawn infographic from The Awl.