Wednesday, August 26, 2015, was certainly an eye-opening and sorrowful day for journalists and future journalists everywhere. Around 6:45 a.m. this past Wednesday, WDBJ news reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward were killed as shots fired while they were wrapping up a live interview at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, V.A. The journalists had been out on an interview with local Chamber of Commerce head Vicki Garner when the gunman opened fire, killing both Parker and Ward. Garner was injured in the shooting, but was rushed to intensive care and is expected to recover after surgery.
The first killing of journalists on American soil since 2007, this day really made an impact on the entire nation, and especially with those who work in the media. What was a local tragedy quickly became national news. President Obama sent his condolences to the friends and families of the reporters, and claimed that it’s reasons like this that we need to have tighter gun laws. News outlets focused their attention, even the nightly news, on the slain journalists. CNN reporter John Berman included his thoughts that they will not be focusing on the gunman, making him infamous, but instead focusing on the short yet happy lives of Ward and Parker, hearing from their devastated friends and family and looking back at their successful careers as journalists.
What was really surprising is that the gunman was actually a disgruntled ex-employee of WDBJ who was fired over two years ago, but still had enough resentment to this day to kill his former coworkers. After the shooting, he fled the scene and live posted on social media about the situation, talking about when he got the gun, what his resentments were towards Parker and Ward, and how he felt towards WDBJ.
The gunman took the lives of two people that had amazing relationships with those around them and bright futures ahead, as Ward was engaged to the love of his life and Parker had just moved in with her boyfriend who was a nightly news anchor on WDBJ. Parker and Ward worked together for years and made a great team according to their coworkers. Everyone who spoke about the two journalists on this day only had good things to say about their careers, their always-positive attitudes at work, and most of all, who they were as people.
Journalism has always been considered to be a dangerous job, and many elements of it include risking your life, but this was not one of those times. This was a time when journalism was just another day on the job. Parker was not reporting from a risky crime scene, and Ward was not filming in a deadly storm. Today, journalism was just another job, a job that these two felt safe going to and interviewing a well respected woman in local government, after in which they could go home at the end of the day to their loved ones, the same as anyone who has a regular office job would.
On this day, the media wanted to be used as a tool for comfort and in general the whole situation really showed how small and personal the entire journalism community as a whole can be, as stations everywhere from CNN to NPR to local news all over the country took time and recognized the reporters for their achievements and honored them in their work and their lives.
