First, authorities need to know that in many nations there are active anti-cult groups who actively seek to play off fear to promote their campaigns of intolerance toward new religious movements. In the United States, it would appear that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has learned some hard lessons from the tragedy of the Branch Davidians in Waco. Having inherited from the BATF a difficult situation, the FBI lacked adequate knowledge of the apocalyptic beliefs of the Davidians to formulate a policy to bring the standoff to a peaceful conclusion. The difficulty of formulating sound policy appears to have been fueled by the sensationalism of news coverage that relied heavily upon anti-cult spokespersons. When an incident involving a religious movement erupts, it is almost inevitable that a solid diet of coverage that lacks objectivity will generate negative public sentiment.
News coverage is a commercial enterprise that often plays off the fears of public opinion.
The result would probably be the same even is commercial appeal were not a factor. Belief systems, especially beliefs about prophecy, tend to be highly complex and highly nuanced. Even if the reporter had the background to understand, packing complex ideas to fit into the news format of broadcast journalism is almost certain to result in superficial and distorted treatment. One of the real lessons of Waco is that this is not accomplished by law enforcement officers super imposing their own beliefs as a template for understand the beliefs of others. The highest priority for law enforcement agencies should be the development of resources to assist them in understanding groups they may have to encourter.