- Reaction score
- 1,667
News companies are facing an agonizing challenge in a year that has already seen, by one count, more than 320 mass shootings across the United States: deciding which atrocities warrant on-the-ground coverage and which don’t.
“There have been too many nights like this. Too many nights when I’ve stood at crime scenes like this,” NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt told viewers Tuesday from Highland Park, Ill. He flew there a day after an attack at a Fourth of July parade killed seven and wounded dozens.
But Holt was providing on-the-ground coverage of only the deadliest of 14 mass shootings that took place over the holiday weekend, according to a tally by the Gun Violence Archive. At least 62 people were shot and 10 killed in Chicago alone, not counting the parade massacre about 30 miles outside the city.
“There is no checklist, per se, as to whether we go or don’t go,” Holt told The Washington Post. When news alerts about the Highland Park shooting interrupted his holiday, he recounted, “the circumstances alone — a suburban July Fourth parade — immediately signaled this would be a major story. As the news unfolded, it became clear we needed to be on the ground.”
Many journalists have a similar triage process: prioritizing shootings based partly on death tolls, partly on a subjective sense of horror and shock. Inevitably, that means most do not end up receiving significant national coverage.
Reporters went en masse to Buffalo when 10 were killed at a grocery store in May in an attack that targeted Black people; and then to Uvalde, Tex., when 21 were killed at an elementary school less than two weeks later. But a June 4 shooting that killed three and injured around a dozen in Philadelphia’s entertainment district received significantly less attention from the national press, as did an attack that left three dead and many injured at a Chattanooga, Tenn., nightclub the next day.
“I think there are moments when it’s kind of like a collective earthquake,” said Wendy Fisher, an executive who oversees newsgathering for ABC News, which sent reporters to Buffalo, Uvalde and Highland Park. “You feel these events. They are very shocking. They have particular characteristics. It’s not so much a numbers thing. It’s kind of like: Where did they happen? When did they happen? The randomness of them. … It’s really the kind of collective shock factor.”
There is no universal definition of a mass shooting. The Gun Violence Archive counts any incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the attacker. The benchmark to deploy Washington Post reporters to an incident is usually four deaths or more, according to Amanda Erickson, a deputy America editor on the National desk. She said editors monitor social media and local news for early reports, then decide on a coverage plan based on the size and nature of the incident. The Post can normally get a reporter to the scene within 90 minutes.
“Unfortunately, there are just so many shootings around the country that we have to be smart about using our resources,” Erickson said. “We can’t tell every story. All shootings affect a community, but we look for the impact on a community and beyond it.”
“There have been too many nights like this. Too many nights when I’ve stood at crime scenes like this,” NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt told viewers Tuesday from Highland Park, Ill. He flew there a day after an attack at a Fourth of July parade killed seven and wounded dozens.
But Holt was providing on-the-ground coverage of only the deadliest of 14 mass shootings that took place over the holiday weekend, according to a tally by the Gun Violence Archive. At least 62 people were shot and 10 killed in Chicago alone, not counting the parade massacre about 30 miles outside the city.
“There is no checklist, per se, as to whether we go or don’t go,” Holt told The Washington Post. When news alerts about the Highland Park shooting interrupted his holiday, he recounted, “the circumstances alone — a suburban July Fourth parade — immediately signaled this would be a major story. As the news unfolded, it became clear we needed to be on the ground.”
Many journalists have a similar triage process: prioritizing shootings based partly on death tolls, partly on a subjective sense of horror and shock. Inevitably, that means most do not end up receiving significant national coverage.
Reporters went en masse to Buffalo when 10 were killed at a grocery store in May in an attack that targeted Black people; and then to Uvalde, Tex., when 21 were killed at an elementary school less than two weeks later. But a June 4 shooting that killed three and injured around a dozen in Philadelphia’s entertainment district received significantly less attention from the national press, as did an attack that left three dead and many injured at a Chattanooga, Tenn., nightclub the next day.
“I think there are moments when it’s kind of like a collective earthquake,” said Wendy Fisher, an executive who oversees newsgathering for ABC News, which sent reporters to Buffalo, Uvalde and Highland Park. “You feel these events. They are very shocking. They have particular characteristics. It’s not so much a numbers thing. It’s kind of like: Where did they happen? When did they happen? The randomness of them. … It’s really the kind of collective shock factor.”
There is no universal definition of a mass shooting. The Gun Violence Archive counts any incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the attacker. The benchmark to deploy Washington Post reporters to an incident is usually four deaths or more, according to Amanda Erickson, a deputy America editor on the National desk. She said editors monitor social media and local news for early reports, then decide on a coverage plan based on the size and nature of the incident. The Post can normally get a reporter to the scene within 90 minutes.
“Unfortunately, there are just so many shootings around the country that we have to be smart about using our resources,” Erickson said. “We can’t tell every story. All shootings affect a community, but we look for the impact on a community and beyond it.”
