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Price says the way the shooting is covered should be examined since there’s a great deal of emotion from journalists in it. “We are out in the community, and we let people know where we are and when to see us on TV.” “I don’t really know what we can change,” Dover says. Price emphasizes that the shooting was a personal vendetta and not an ideological attack on journalists - Flanagan was targeting specific people, not journalists in general. “At this point in time, all we can be is more vigilant.” “It sparked a conversation about how we can make working in the field safer,” Price says.

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The full effect of the slayings probably won’t be known for some time, but it does have reporters thinking. “You sort of see people in the peripheral.”

Many people linger around reporters to tell them about a story, express appreciation or do something funny in the background. It’s also not unusual for people to be around, the reporters say. “You’re trying to be focused on the person you’re speaking to,” Price says. “It’d look strange if you were looking around you. “You’re looking directly at the camera,” Dover says. Some claim Parker did not react as if she had been shot.īoth Dover and Price say it’s easy to understand why someone like the shooter might not be noticed immediately.

Although not caught on camera, it left an impression on the broadcasting community in Little Rock.Ĭurtis Lavelle Vance was found guilty of Pressly’s murder in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.Ĭonspiracy theorists have called the Virginia shooting a “false flag” operation to help the government create “anti-gun laws.” Conspiracy theorists say the victims saw the gunman, who they say entered the scene early. 20, 2008, 26-year-old KATV anchor Anne Pressly was severely beaten in her Little Rock home and died five days later. Little Rock is not unfamiliar when it comes to violence against reporters. “Her heart dropped when she read had just turned 24.” “I got a text from my mother,” Price says.

is very troubling,” she says.Īttacks such as the Virginia shooting can make journalists’ families fear for the safety of their loved ones, particularly if they’re exposed in public on a daily basis. Dover says it’s an accepted risk of the job for journalists in war zones in Syria and Ukraine, but it’s not one usually considered at home. “I think it was jarring and shocking,” says Elicia Dover, 27, reporter at KATV, Channel 7. “They were killed doing something we do every day.” “I think the emotional reaction is ‘that could have been me,’” says Victoria Price, 24, morning reporter at KARK-TV, Channel 4. But for many journalists, the shooting ran deeper. The incident affected people across the country and reignited the never-ending gun-control discussion. Just hours later, Flanagan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The last thing viewers saw and heard were the camera dropping and Parker’s screams as she fled from the gunshots. Not only was the shooting broadcast, but Flanagan recorded the shooting from his perspective, also. 26 when former reporter Vester Lee Flanagan, who went by Bryce Williams on air, walked up to them as they conducted an interview and fatally shot them on live television. It was your run-of-the-mill interview in Moneta, Virginia, for WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward on Aug.

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