I suppose by now you've heard plenty about the mass shooting out in San Bernardino this morning. I got hooked watching the news coverage even though I was well aware it was one of those stories where every hour you watch, you get about thirty seconds of new info which may or may not be true an hour later. Even now, twelve hours after the initial gunfire, a reporter on-the-scene could probably summarize everything that is actually known in under three minutes.
They're now saying the main shooter was a Muslim — a legal U.S. citizen who used at least one automatic weapon that was purchased legally. So each side gets something: The folks on the Left can use it as an example of why gun laws need to be increased and those on the Right can use it as an example of why Muslims need to be decreased. I don't expect either of those goals to be achieved. Then again, not so long ago, I didn't think we'd see Gay Marriage become legal and more accepted or that anyone would ever discuss Donald Trump as a real candidate. So the world is full of surprises.
I assume we're all on the same page that these tragedies are horrible, that this should not be the norm in this country, that our hearts go out to the victims and their families, etc. I assume we're not on the same page as to how to prevent them so I'll just write a little more about the news coverage.
I flipped channels all day and wherever I turned, I was constantly reminded of Jack Germond's line about how the trouble with news reporters is that they aren't paid to say "I don't know," even when they don't know. Most of today, they knew very little and we heard a lot of empty reportage — often wildly speculative and based on vapors — repeated over and over. And over and over and over because they had nothing to say. It's like when they're covering car chases and they're reduced to recycling clichés like "He's driving with no regard for the safety of others" and "The police know they need to end this soon."
Two things impressed me today. One was how professional and in-charge of the situation the law enforcement folks were before the cameras. They were calm and very good at deflecting questions that tried to draw them into speculating or saying more than they should have at any given moment.
The other person who impressed me was a fellow named Stu Mundel who is an "Aerial Journalist" for KCBS Channel 2 here in Los Angeles, which means he's usually on KCAL Channel 9 simultaneously, as they share a newsroom and newsfeed. Whenever anything happens in L.A., Stu Mundel always seems to be overhead in a helicopter or a plane or a hang glider or something…and while he can get a bit excitable covering a police pursuit or a tragedy of some sort, he also seems to always have something real to say about what he's showing us.
At least in L.A., the best reporters seem to be in the air. There's a guy named (I believe) Bill Thomas in a chopper for KABC Channel 7 who's also pretty good…again, able to ad-lib from on-high and to give out actual information. That's got to be the toughest job in local TV news and I often wish the anchors in the studio would just stay out of it and let the fellow who's actually above the scene talk.
Last March, I watched Mr. Mundel covering a police chase that went on and on and on…until finally, he was low of gas and had to abandon coverage. It was a surprisingly intimate telecast that moved from one TV channel to another and then onto the web…and finally, for the last hour or so, Mundel was broadcasting all alone with no anchors in the studio, speaking to us from high in the sky on the station's website.
It all made for very interesting reporting of a not-very-interesting news story…or the opposite of what we usually get. Whenever my knee heals to the point when I can begin driving again, I'm thinking of going on some sort of high-speed crime spree — but only if Stu Mundel covers me and doesn't say, "He's driving with no regard for the safety of others."