Texas shooting video sparks media outrage

The decision by two media outlets this week to release a 77-minute video showing police inaction during a shooting at Robb Elementary School was lambasted by residents of Uvalde, Texas, even though they themselves had called for this kind of transparency for weeks.

The families of the 19 children and two teachers killed on May 24 by an 18-year-old said the newspaper Austin American-Statesman and the television KVUE-TV they acted insensitively by posting the video before those directly affected had a chance to see it.

Video from surveillance cameras released Tuesday, which was later shown and described by other news organizations, records the moment the gunman enters the school and includes audio of gunshots from inside a classroom. It shows police rushing into the school and then wandering down a hallway for over an hour before the gunman is finally killed.

The community’s response reflects the reality that journalism must often tread lightly.

The Texas House committee investigating the police response to the massacre had planned to show the images Sunday to families of the victims and then release them to the public. The panel will still be holding a closed session with residents that day to discuss the conclusion of its investigation.

“They surprise us with a leak,” lamented Ángel Garza, whose 10-year-old daughter, Amerie Jo, was murdered in Robb, according to , which this week covered the trip of some relatives to an event in Washington. “Who do they think they are to publish images like that of our children who can’t even speak for themselves, but want to follow and broadcast to the whole world what their last moments were? What makes you think that’s okay?”

Kimberly Rubio said at the Washington event that she understood the need to hold responsible officials accountable, but she didn’t want to hear the sound of gunfire that day. Her daughter, Lexi, 10, was killed in the massacre.

Though he disagrees with the way the investigation has been handled, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin called the video’s release unprofessional.

“There was no reason for the families to have to see that,” McLaughlin said. “They needed to see the video, but they didn’t need to see the gunman walk in or hear the gunshots.”

Both media outlets said they reached out to families before the video was released, though it was unclear how many they searched or what the response was. The American-Statesman referred a reporter to a column written by Manny Garcia, the newspaper’s executive editor, which did not touch on the subject. The news director of KVUEChristina Ginn did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

On social media, Ginn retweeted a comment by another journalist that police may have shared the video with families. Journalists had been seeking his rendition for weeks, as the police response is the central focus of the investigation.

Before publishing the video, both outlets edited the sound of the screams. The image of a boy in the hallway who saw the gunman and quickly fled to safety was electronically faded to protect his privacy.

When KVUE aired the video for the first time, he said that Tony Plohetski, a reporter who works for both the newspaper and the television station, had first seen the video two weeks earlier.

He said they considered waiting until the video was officially released. “The problem with that is that the authorities have constantly, from day one, failed the people of Uvalde,” Plohetski told . He declined to comment further The Associated Press.

“The truth always wins,” Garcia wrote in his message to American-Statesman readers, “Perhaps not on our clocks, but the truth always prevails.”

The media could have waited until next week, but they wouldn’t have been acting in people’s best interests, said Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. In this case, the video had clear and strong news value, she said.

It is often difficult to make a journalistic decision in the public interest without upsetting a small group.

While family members are important stakeholders in the story, “we are talking about a much broader interest group, and that is the public that believes that the police will act in the public interest. You can clearly see that is not happening,” he added.

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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