History Main / EndangeringNewsBroadcast

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/WhiteHouseDown https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emiliecale_8386.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The name and picture of a hostage currently being held by terrorists who watch the news. Great going.]]

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In "Minimal Loss", Prentiss and Reid are investigating a cultist sect undercover as social workers when a dumbass Attorney General, looking to score political brownie points, orders state troopers and SWAT to raid the cult's farm while they're still inside. When the BAU takes charge of the siege and tell the AG, in no uncertain terms, to blow, he instead heads to the reporters to inform them that he is [[BlatantLies coordinating intimately with the FBI on this matter]] and leaks that they already have an undercover agent in place, blowing Prentiss' cover and nearly Reid's as well.

* The Discovery TV mini-series ''Series/ManhuntUnabomber'' (which [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory dramatizes]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the FBI's manhunt for Theodore Kaczynski]]) tosses an enormous complication on the investigation after the FBI is able to single out that Kaczynski is the most probable suspect and start to surveil his home and mobilize agents covertly to raid it when the time is right and they have iron-clad proof. What was meant to be a multi-month operation turns into [[RaceAgainstTheClock a mad dash to find enough evidence to present to the judge and strike within 24 hours]] when CBS catches wind of what is going on and the SmugSnake producer tells the director that he will only hold the story for that much time (even after the director insists that if Kaczynski ''is'' the Unabomber, then the broadcast may end up causing a bloodbath).
* ''Series/{{Bosch}}'': While Bosch is working undercover, a news story breaks about his alleged misconduct. When the criminals see his face in the news, his cover is blown and he barely escapes with his life.
* ''Series/SueThomasFBEye'': Played with in "[[Recap/SueThomasFBEyeS1E12TheLeak The Leak]]". The team comes to suspect that the media was involved in the leak. They track the problem to a reporter named Joe Harding, who insists they can't blame him because he didn't release the information before the raid happened. However, it turns out that [[spoiler: one of the interns at the paper is a terrorist sympathizer]], leading Sue to chew Joe out about the importance of confidentiality.

* The Discovery TV mini-series ''Series/ManhuntUnabomber'' (which [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory dramatizes]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the FBI's manhunt for Theodore Kaczynski]]) tosses an enormous complication on the investigation after the FBI is able to single out that Kaczynski is the most probable suspect and start to surveil his home and mobilize agents covertly to raid it when the time is right and they have iron-clad proof. What was meant to be a multi-month operation turns into [[RaceAgainstTheClock a mad dash to find enough evidence to present to the judge and strike within 24 hours]] when NBC catches wind of what is going on and the SmugSnake producer tells the director that he will only hold the story for that much time (even after the director insists that if Kaczynski ''is'' the Unabomber, then the broadcast may end up causing a bloodbath).

Contrast InformationWantsToBeFree when broadcasting of secrets is a good thing.

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' fanfic [[http://manicmea.com/bodhisattva-206 "Bodhisattva,"]] Mulder is chucked in prison as the prime suspect for the bomb mailed to Assistant Director Skinner. A Federal agent in Federal prison, his only hope is that no-one identifies him... Guess whose face is plastered all over the news?

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. The Alliance News Network twitter updates on the Reaper invasion of Earth, which included details on where civilians were able to get military protection so they could escape Earth. [[spoiler: Emily Wong]] realized too late that the Reapers had been reading the tweets to find out where the evacuation point was so they could attack it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'', Zeta is a rogue robot on the run and is accompanied by Rosalie Rowan, a runaway from a foster home. In one episode, Ro ends up on a talk show where people who have been separated from their families have their relatives tracked down for a reunion. Ro is initially scared because having her face and name broadcasted live on the air would put her and Zeta at risk of being traced and subsequently arrested by the NSA.

* At the start of ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'', when the Exo Fleet begins a campaign against the pirate clans, a reporter comes onto the bridge and begins broadcasting there, with the possibility of accidentally sending out all sorts of info out to the pirates. The second that [[BigGood Admiral Winfield]] notices them he throws them off the bridge.

* In UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, generals got a lot of use out of the local papers, which often reported troop movements in the area. Robert E. Lee was particularly fond of the Northern papers during his Maryland and Pennsylvania campaigns. Other generals were less than happy with their more loose-tongued soliders getting squeezed for valuable intel, like William Sherman:

* In the case of California serial killer Ricardo Ramirez, known in the media as the "Night Stalker," the mayor held a televised news conference which indicated that the key components of the investigation were ballistics evidence and footprints found at the crime scenes. This gave Ramirez the opportunity to dispose of his weapons and shoes.

* In a general sense, the very presence of a free press makes a democratic country a more tempting target for terrorism than an authoritarian state with tightly-controlled media. The goal of insurgency terror is to use strategic violence against a civilian population to coerce a government that the terrorists cannot defeat through military means into changing its policy. If a car bomb goes off in a market but nobody hears about it, is anyone terrorized?

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Vento of the Front casts a spell that causes anyone who bears ill will toward her to be knocked unconscious, no matter where they are in the world. Naturally, when the media reports on the strange woman dressed in scantily yellow robes and blowing holes in buildings to the public, they only succeed in knocking out a vast majority of the population until the spell ends, since the majority of viewers thought "that lady is a jerk" or "that lady has to be stopped" or something similar.
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* The opening shoot-out of ''Film/{{SWAT}}'' almost invokes this: at one point a TV cameramen climb a fence behind the LAPD command post and get a shot of their security camera feed, which the robbers holding hostages inside the bank then see on the news coverage. Lieutenant Velasquez sees what's going on and scrambles to get officers to block the TV guy's camera, but it's unclear whether any important information was transmitted.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Vento of the Front casts a spell that causes anyone who bears ill will toward her to be knocked unconscious, no matter where they are in the world. Naturally, when the media reports on the strange woman dressed in scantily yellow robes and blowing holes in buildings to the public, they only succeed in knocking out a vast majority of the population until the spell ends, since the majority of viewers thought "that lady is a jerk" or "that lady has to be stopped" or something similar.

* ''Film/{{Speed}}''. Terrorist Payne uses the news networks to monitor the police activities near the bus on which he has planted a bomb. Jack Traven, the officer on the bus, is only able to escape the news helicopters by getting the bus to an airport, which has restricted airspace.

* In ''Film/DieHard'', a TV reporter goes to John [=McClane=]'s house and talks to his children. Hans Gruber sees that the children match the photos in Holly's office, and realized that Holly was John's wife, giving him a valuable hostage.

* In UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, generals got a lot of use out of the local papers, which often reported troop movements in the area. Robert E. Lee was particularly fond of the Northern papers during his Maryland and Pennsylvania campaigns.

** On the morning of April 9th, 1940, while German troops were entering Norway, the king, government, and parliament evacuated Oslo, taking the first train north. The broadcasting company, still free at the time, broadcast: "The government and king have evacuated to Hamar..." Whoops! The Germans were in hot pursuit within two hours.

Related to UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom, LearnedFromTheNews,and IfItBleedsItLeads. See also CoincidentalBroadcast, LooseLips, TaughtByTelevision, and SayingTooMuch. Not to be confused with IsThisThingStillOn and EngineeredPublicConfession when the very guy holding his own secrets accidentally says it publicly. This may overlap with SocialMediaIsBad when the broadcaster uses social media rather than more traditional media outlets.

* During {{Comicbook/Superman}}'s [[DorkAge "electric"]] phase, one storyline had Metallo gleaning information about how to defeat him from a news program in which Jimmy Olsen and Professor Hamilton [[NiceJobBreakingItHero analyzed Superman's new power set in great detail.]]
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': Parodied in "The Daily Star". Luke is trying to sneak around the back of the saloon to ambush the bad guys and tells Horace as much. Horace then sells the latest edition of the Daily Star revealing Luke's plan, a copy of which is bought and read by the bad guys. Luke's ambush fails, he starts angrily telling off Horace... before telling him that his plan failed, so he's going to try from the front this time. Horace prints another run, the bad guys move into position... and Luke sneaks up on them from behind. The sheriff is later confused that Luke didn't do as the paper claimed he did.
* A one-shot story of ''COmicBook/TheSpirit'' had the Spirit helping a young woman that was being chased by gangsters... and the gangsters constantly finding them wherever they went, nearly killing them repeatedly. Turned out that the woman was an IntrepidReporter and her constant "dramatic narration" (which was driving Spirit nuts as it was) was being picked up by a HiddenWire on her person and broadcasted live on the radio for ''everybody in town'' (including the gangsters) to hear.
* ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]''. Tim spots a criminal who has disguised himself as a pregnant female hostage and simply walked out of a hostage situation pretending to be the first hostage let go on a news broadcast while he's grounded. A quick call to ComicBook/{{Batman}} sees the crook caught and handed back into police custody right after he slips out of sight.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': In one flashback arc, Chromedome and Prowl’s murder investigation is complicated when the news gets ahold of their preliminary reports and blabs about all their findings. [[spoiler:This was [[InvokedTrope intentionally invoked]] by Chromedome and Prowl’s superiors. The murders were part of the Senate’s plans to ingratiate themselves with the Decepticons; the cops were never supposed to solve the case, merely “discover” that the Decepticons weren’t responsible, allowing the Senate to spin the situation as them being unbiased and proving the Decepticons’ innocence.]]