I couldn’t be happier … ok, that’s not entirely true
32 kids dying at the hands of some crazed, loner gun man (allegedly) is not something to be happy about. but this monumental tragedy made me truly realize how greatful i am to no longer work in mainstream news.
i have a feeling i know pretty well what’s been going on in newsrooms across the country, from CNN to affiliates in Small Town, USA. they’ve been figuring out how to provide wall-to-wall coverage, and pretty often grasping at straws. i’m not saying this shouldn’t be addressed. and i’m not saying the people in those newsrooms don’t care about what’s happened. but i was a breaking news girl at one point, too, and watching this all unfold on TV brought back all those memories of scrambling around, rushing to get a story to air.
the victims of the shooting deserve to be remembered. family, friends, and students need an outlet to express their grief. the country should see what happened so we can all mourn together. of course that’s all true. but it’s what happens between all that that i wonder about sometimes. having every single anchor on staff (practically) on location? bringing in so-called experts to analyze what may have happened? bringing in Dr. Phil to analyze what may have happened? trying to illicit staged responses out of students and victims? branding everything “breaking news” two days after the initial event? branding it at all - with clever graphics and artsy re-opens? these are the things that cause a media circus.
and i can just visualize what the local stations are doing (fortunately i don’t have a TV at home, so i dont’ feel obligated to find out) - they’re looking for that famed, elusive “local tie.” the cousin of the girlfriend of the roomate who’s friend was in the building where the shootings happened. the family waiting by the phone, wondering about the latest update on their wounded neice or nephew. “we found someone who knows someone, but they’re not at home, what should we do?!” “get them on the phone in the sound booth and tell master to roll on it!” “get the chopper up over their house and have them nextel us the second they see someone!” (ok, i made that last one up, i’ve never actually HEARD anyone say that, but i’m not putting it out of the realm of possibility).
this is kind of how i’d been living for the past few years (which on the grand scale of careers is really nothing, i suppose). the more breaking news alerts we had, the more live remote interviews we set up, the more reporters were out on the scene, the more people we had that were willing to talk - on cam, in studio, on the phone, live, on tape, sound cut down, entire press coferences - GIVE ME ALL OF IT!!! - i even had a news director who would let me run a half-hour newscast overtime, and into scheduled programming, if the content was “truly compelling.” (so much for backtiming …) i truly wanted to get the best story out to the viewers (and i still do - and i’m sure most broadcasters do as well) - but i got caught up in the culture of the newsroom.
i didn’t realize until this tragedy, that i had been losing the ablity to feel truly sad at someone else’s pain. i could think to myself, “that’s sad.” but it’s like i couldn’t formulate the proper emotional response. i suppose working in the media -network, cable or current - will do that to you. but now, i have the opportunity to connect the viewer to the people who were actually there, to let them hear the victims speak their mind for seven minutes - not 7 seconds. and THIS makes me truly happy.