This Twitter conversation caught my eye, and figured it’d be worth a bit more than a 140-characted explanation…

(referring to this week’s freighter accident on the Maumee River…)

BBQGUIDE @FOXToledo At least ONE crew member has gone to the hospital so far on the freighter -

FOXToledo [web producer Tim Andrassy] @BBQGuide thanks for the tweet. We are hearing conflicting reports that there was an injured crew member, but will be sorted out Fri morn

BBQGUIDE @FOXToledo Nothing to “conflict” as I heard the radio traffic of the first responder talking to the hospital taking the crew member in

I love getting the extra ears on the scanner, and sharing the information, nonetheless, but here’s the problem: we have to report only what we’ve been told from officials. From what I understand, we jump into interesting legal waters when we decide to report what we’re hearing on the scanner, for one thing…

More basic than that – even listening to the scanner, we can never be 100% sure we’re hearing the right call or the right information.

A prime example presented itself last night: I rushed out to Maumee on the report of a person shot in a vehicle. At first, we assumed it might be a suicide (which we don’t cover – a fact I can’t stress enough) but still had to check it out.

On the radio, the EMS crew told the hospital it was a GSW (gunshot wound) and they had an entrance and exit wound in the victim’s neck. Sounds legit. But we didn’t report it.

Why? When I got to the scene, all the witnesses (including those who called 9-1-1 after finding the man) said they didn’t think he was shot, and police had told them the victim may have wandered over from an earlier accident. At that crash, OHP had found a wrecked car, but no driver.

Could it have still been a shooting? Yeah, but it didn’t seem 100% sure anymore, like it did on the scanner. Why? We didn’t have 100% of the information.

In the end, the puncture wounds were injuries from the accident – no shooting, no crime scene, and thankfully, no apology from us for reporting the wrong information.

We reported only what we had confirmed.

Sometimes, if we have anonymous, trusted sources that can confirm things we may just cite the scanner reports, but we still have that independent confirmation.

So, as nice as it would be to report scanner traffic – trust me, I’m a scannerhound, that would make my life so much easier – it’s not trustworthy enough to report on its own.

But don’t keep that from letting us know if you hear something, fellow scannerhounds. 1 866 FOX NEWS is the easiest way to get in touch with our newsroom… 419.461.1591 is the easiest way to get in touch with me, personally.