MSNBC said Friday that the cable network regrets having shown images on live TV of material that personally identified details about relatives of the San Bernardino shooters.
“We regret that we briefly showed images of photographs and identification cards that should not have been aired without review,” the network said in a statement given to the Washington Examiner.
NBC, the parent network of MSNBC, along with other media outlets, gained access to the home of the married couple who shot up a health center in San Bernardino this week.
While rummaging on live TV throughout the house, NBC reporter Kerry Sanders and his cameraman showed images that appeared to reveal the identity of people related to the shooters, including the photo of a young child. The shooters, who were killed in a stand off with police, were the parents of a six-month-old girl.
Sanders said on TV that the apartment landlord, Doyle Miller, allowed access to the apartment to NBC News and other media outlets, including Fox News, CNN and CBS.
Sanders said the FBI had gone through the apartment to obtain any evidence related to the shooters and also to disarm any bombs or boobytraps that might be inside. An official with the FBI later confirmed that it was no longer in control of the apartment.
Still, Sanders said NBC News did not pay for access to the apartment and that Miller allowed NBC in because he didn’t “have anything to hide.”
The FBI said Friday that it is now investigating that shooting as terrorism.
The shooters are reported to have been in contact with radical Islamic extremists, and one of them is reported to have pledged allegiance on social media to the Islamic terrorist group the Islamic State.
