A sea of media surrounds Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn who visited West in the days immediately following the explosion at the West Fertilizer Company. Their press conference also helped illustrate how easy it is to spread misinformation. In the days following the explosion, authorities were very circumspect about the number of fatalities and the number of people who were still unaccounted for. This left reporters and news outlets eager for numbers and a sense of the human toll exacted by the blast. Senator John Cornyn of Texas closed out the press conference by saying that 60 people were still unaccounted for - a horrifying number since at that point fatalities were described as ranging from 5 to 15 people (and ultimately 15 people died.) Yet, when Cornyn spoke to a smaller group of reporters for a quick follow-up, he said that he needed to put that "60 unaccounted for" in context because it included people who were in hospitals as well as family members from other cities just trying to get a hold of loved ones. But the damage was already done, and all you had to do was hop onto twitter and see the number 60 repeated by numerous outlets. At a later press conference, local officials made sure to put that number in context saying they expected at least 99 percent of the people on that list to turn up. Even the Mayor Pro Tem at one point said an out-of-state relative was looking for him, and he could have easily been on the list himself. It was a really interesting moment to see a statement that wasn't entirely inaccurate, but just wasn't the complete picture either, get latched onto so quickly. Is it a thirst for information? Is it a better story if the numbers are more horrifying? Is it the immediacy with which we've come to expect the news? Was it trust in the Senator as a source? As a reporter and a consumer of news, it was definitely instructive to be a part of this fallible moment.
