WORLD / Reactions
US media blanketing shooting story
(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-18 10:43
NEW YORK - Television offered a sounding board Tuesday as people
struggled to make sense - if they ever could - of why a gunman killed 32
people at Virginia Tech.
The major networks broke from regular programming to cover an on-campus
memorial service with President Bush, only hours after the shooter had
been identified and before all the identities of his victims were
publicly known.
Even though cable news networks provided continuous coverage, the pace
was slower than Monday, when the horror unfolding was fresh. CNN was even
reduced to interviewing the man who delivered mail to suspect Cho
Seung-Hui.
ABC, CBS and NBC focused on trying to piece together the mystery of a
suspect who left few tracks.
"He didn't have any friends," said CBS News' Bob Orr. "He didn't have any
criminal record. We don't have any idea why he did this."
Network anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams all did
expanded hour-long newscasts from the campus in Blacksburg, Va.
It was the second day for Couric and Williams, first for Gibson. ABC
chose to have Gibson anchor "World News" from New York as the story broke
Monday.
Each of the anchors was granted interviews with President Bush, who
delivered condolences with a somber voice and furrowed brow.
Bush's presence in Virginia was criticized earlier in the day by Rosie
O'Donnell on ABC's "The View," who contrasted his actions following
Hurricane Katrina.
"It was interesting to note that President Bush was flying to Virginia
Tech today and took him a week to get to ... Katrina to visit the
victims," she said. "You can't pretend that it's the same. How many
people died in Katrina?"
NBC's Williams said Bush has been effective as a mourner-in-chief. "He is
quite good at it, quite soothing at it," he said.
The convocation Tuesday, with political and religious speeches and "Let's
go, Hokies" cheers, showed a community in the first stages of dealing
with the tragedy. The anchors showed it with little comment.
"This is, I suggest, the beginning of a long process of memorializing and
internalizing what happened here," Gibson said.
A technical glitch on "Dateline NBC" Monday night briefly made it appear
that a medical technician being interviewed by Williams was in the
cross-hairs of a gun. The lines, normally seen by camera operators trying
to center their pictures, usually don't appear on the screen but briefly
did in this case until corrected - an embarrassment given the nature of
the story.
A spokeswoman said NBC received no complaints.
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