Thursday, August 27, 2015

Viewers of Virginia TV Station Wake Up to Watch a Nightmare - nytimes

ROANOKE, Va. — The signal from WDBJ-TV carries across hundreds of miles of southwest Virginia, and on Wednesday morning, so did the grief.

In small, rural hamlets, and in the bustling downtown where WDBJ calls itself “Your Hometown Station,” viewers just waking up to another interview by the sunny 24-year-old Alison Parker were horrified to watch as she was gunned down, along with Adam Ward, 27, her cameraman, in a brazen shooting committed live on television.

In the hours after gunshots rang out, killing both journalists and wounding Vicki Gardner, a local chamber of commerce official being interviewed about the 50th anniversary of a popular man-made lake, a heave of sadness, shock and anger could be felt across the region.

“All these different places that reporters go that are somewhat dangerous, and yet here they are standing beside a quiet lake as the sun is rising and all this craziness breaks loose,” said Mike Stevens, 54, who worked for more than two decades as the sports director of WDBJ before leaving in 2008. “To me, it’s still kind of surreal. I can’t begin to explain to you how peaceful Smith Mountain Lake is at that time of morning, and to have those gunshots ring out like that.” - Read More at NYT

Viewers of Virginia TV Station Wake Up to Watch a Nightmare

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