The Media Should Stay Away from Sandy Hook

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This Saturday, December 14^th, is the one-year anniversary of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.  Twenty children and six adult staff members died.  Before driving to the school, the killer, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother at their home.  As first-responders arrived, he committed suicide.

It was the second deadliest mass shooting by a single person in American history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, and the second deadliest mass murder at a U.S. elementary school, after the 1927 Bath School bombings in Michigan.

The city has requested that media outlets mark the anniversary in their own way, but the municipal government specifically requested that the press stay away from the city on the first anniversary of the attack.  I thoroughly agree with the decision made by the municipal government.  There are times when the Media needs to exercise good judgment and do the right thing.  Last week, a Connecticut Superior Court Judge upheld the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission's ruling to release calls related to the shooting.  A state attorney had tried to block the release to shield the victims' families.  The Associated Press had challenged authorities' refusal to release the 911 tapes.  I believe that there is no new news value in the audio recordings, we can read the transcripts.  Nearly every national news outlet exercised good judgment and did not air the audio tapes of the 911 calls.

CNN along with other major media outlets will not be in Newtown this Saturday to cover the one-year anniversary. 

As many of you know, I ran television news organizations for most of my career.  I have made many burdensome decisions regarding news coverage of difficult stories over the years.

9-11 was my most difficult challenge.  I made the decision to stop showing the Twin Towers collapsing in a cloud of dust shortly after the LIVE airings on KTLA.  I felt that continued playback of those images was too painful for the thousands of victims of the tragedy and their families.

I commend CNN and other news outlets that have made the decision to not be in Newtown, this Saturday.  The public has a right to know but does the media have the right to invade the privacy of the victims’ families in this and other news stories? 

You can connect right now by downloading the Mobile Generated News® Apps and upload your story about what you think about whether the Media should stay out of Newtown or any other newsworthy subject. 

─Jeff Wald, Executive Director, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

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