The WDBJ-7 tragedy

There really are no words.

More than 30 years ago I started my television news career in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market working for the “Lynchburg station” WSET-13 out of the Roanoke bureau. We had three people (two reporters and a videographer) in our office. Across the street was the headquarters of “Your Hometown Station” WDBJ-7.

They were, and still are, the model small-to-medium market news and television operation that others can just aspire to be.

They had reporters and anchors who never left because they were treated well, always had the best equipment and always had great leadership.

Today, 30 years later, WDBJ-7 once again showed its strength in the face of absolute tragedy as two of their best, a young reporter and videographer, were senselessly gunned down apparently by a disgruntled and confused former reporter.

Watching online today I shared my amazement with others at how the station’s GM and staff stayed on the air reporting this story while simultaneously celebrating the lives of the co-workers and friends and grieving for them. As a former reporter I can tell you I’m not sure I could have held my stuff together.

My personal thoughts and prayers go to all at WDBJ-7, especially Kelly Zuber who 30 years ago was there manning the assignment desk as my direct competitor. Kelly has been the news director at the station for a number of years and is one of the people responsible for what WBDJ-7 has stood for all these years.

In PR we regularly view the media as confrontational sometimes even as the enemy. This is wrong. In many ways they are our partners. We may not always agree with them but our working relationship is critical to a shared success.

In recent years their jobs have become more difficult because of downsizing on one side and the public’s increasing negative attitude on the other. It’s a shame that events like this morning’s on Smith Mountain Lake serve as a reminder that the media is people too. They perform an important public service and while we sometimes don’t agree with them and what they report, we need to keep our roles and feelings in perspective.

As evidenced again today, these people literally put their lives on the line doing what they do, be it on a battlefield reporting on a war in the Middle East or doing a feature story on a lake in Virginia.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)