So I clicked on the TV Saturday mid-afternoon in Midland, Texas, and heard on a cable station about an active shooter in "Midland/Odessa." (Actually, the two cities are roughly 20 miles apart. But that's not important.)
My thought was that a local channel would be right on top of it. Nope. CBS7 was the only one trying to cover it, but they were woefully lacking in information. They were getting their information from CNN and New York Times.
Their studio was in an Odessa mall, and at a couple of points they reported that armed law enforcement officers were walking through the mall. That prompted the news readers to go hide. So they went somewhere off screen leaving the audience staring at the empty space they just left. They kept on talking through their wireless microphones, so we knew they were there, somewhere. They were never in danger, but they didn't know that at the time.
But that seemingly forced abandonment of the broadcast desk became news for the cable outlets. The local broadcasters made themselves part of the story without actually doing anything but hiding.
The killing was tragic, but the local media were disappointing. Their reliance on the major news outlets demonstrated that local news outlets may be able to add drama, but not much else.
Update: This article at OAOA.com was an Associated Press update as of 4:46 am, Sun Sep 1, 2019: 5 dead after man stopped by Texas troopers goes on rampage.
And here's something interesting: "Active shooter incidents were also reported at Music City Mall, Midland Park Mall and Midland Memorial Hospital, but all were false, according to local police departments." Found at Odessa mass shooting leaves 5 dead, 21 injured. How do false reports like that originate?
Meanwhile, local news says the Odessa Police Chief will hold a press conference at noon today.
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9:20 AM 9/1/2019
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