WPRI-TV careful during fire coverage

[Bob Nelson <raccoonradio@yahoo.com>]

WPRI-TV 12 showed good judgement during the fire
coverage; at one point, they were careful about
putting a caller on the air who claimed to be a
pyrotechnics expert. They told the caller that someone
would talk to him off air (presumably to "check him
out"); a couple minutes later, they did put the caller
on and he did indeed seem legitimate. It would have
been so easy for them to just put anybody on, only to
find it's a Howard Stern-esque prankster ("Yes, I have
evidence that the fire was caused by Baby Booey.") 

That happened recently to Dan Rather during the
shuttle disaster coverage. 
(A prankster told him "You're an idiot." Rather, after
a moment of being befuddled, then said, "Well, I am an
idiot, I guess." There have been more than a few cases
of pranksters calling TV stations/networks and fooling
the media in ways like that.