Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 17 > Entry
College massacre floods TV news
NBC anchor Brian Williams and CBS’s Katie Couric anchored last night’s newscasts from Blacksburg, Va., where the worst mass shooting in U.S. history took place on the Virginia Tech campus.
ABC’s Charles Gibson held back, anchoring his evening news from New York.
“On this day, a tranquil college campus became a killing field,” Gibson said at the top of “World News.” At the end, where he usually says, “I hope you had a good day,” Gibson said sadly, “I know you didn’t have a good day …”
Coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre was wall-to-wall on cable news networks and warranted frequent break-ins on the broadcast networks. Monday evening, CBS expanded its evening newscast to an hour, NBC quickly put together a prime-time “Dateline NBC” on the tragedy and ABC expanded “Nightline”.
Reporters wisely remained calm and measured on the air. The shaky cell-phone video, supplied to news organizations by a student on the scene, hardly needed any hype. Jamal Albarghouti’s grainy footage included the pop of gunfire and muffled screams in the background. No explanation needed.
Breaking news that blankets TV programming is always unsettling, but Monday’s news was especially terrifying. The thought of 32 victims, plus the suicidal shooter, was almost too much to bear. Memories of the University of Texas Tower shooting, the Luby’s massacre and the horror of Columbine came rushing back.
No, Charlie, we really didn’t have a very good day.
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By austinights
April 17, 2007 11:01 AM | Link to this
A bomb threat was found on a note at the St. Ed's campus and some students felt inconvenienced by the whole evacuation and security protocols? What gives with our society? Do we think that Jack Bauer is going to come out of no where to save the day? Come on...look at what happened once already at UT and now Virginia. Copycats are always something to look out for in these type situations. Is taking a Physics or History exam really that important?
I'm sure we'll have wall to wall perspectives and re-enactments from now till we find out who will get custody of Daniellynn Smith. We're reaching a fervor in our society as to "too much" information, because it might not all be accurate. We have reporters who cover flood crossings one moment, then experts on domestic terror situations. For the guy who killed those college students....you only needed one bullet! Gee whiz!