Milwaukee TV Stations Suspend Live Shots After Virginia Newscast Shooting

A Roanoke police cruiser keeps vigil in front of the studios of WDBJ-TV7 in Roanoke, Va., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, a day after reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward from the station were killed during a liv... A Roanoke police cruiser keeps vigil in front of the studios of WDBJ-TV7 in Roanoke, Va., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, a day after reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward from the station were killed during a live broadcast Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) MORE LESS
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Two Milwaukee local news stations will suspend the use of live shots after the on-air deaths of two journalists in Virginia, according to Milwaukee media writer Duane Dudek.

News directors for WTMJ-TV and WISN-TV said they would, at least temporarily, cut back on the practice out of consideration for the safety of their employees.

“Out of an abundance of caution we are not planning any discretionary live field reports from the field today,” WTMJ-TV’s Janet Hundley wrote in a memo to the newsroom, adding that in the case of breaking news, “we will discuss our options.”

In an email, WISN-TV’s Chris Gegg said that the channel was suspending live shots “out of caution, and sensitivity to our employees.”

“The safety of our staff members, especially our reporters, photographers, and newsroom engineers in the field, is always at the top of our minds,” he said.

Alison Parker, a reporter for Roanoke, Virginia’s WDBJ-TV7 and her cameraman Adam Ward were shot and killed by a disgruntled coworker during a live morning broadcast from a local waterpark Wednesday.

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  1. Run on a slight delay like so many others do so they can censor things out. Problem solved.

    I don’t mean to sound callused here, but this wasn’t a random shooting of someone targeting journalists everywhere, so this seems like a knee-jerk reaction to me. I may be wrong on that front, but it just seems like that.

  2. I agree. This seems like an overreaction, though I’m sure that TV reporters everywhere are spooked by what happened.

  3. As usual, as with ISIS and Ebola, Americans manage to panic and overreact. Although, considering most local news live shots are nonsense and add nothing to the story, it’s no big loss. Interviews and stand-ups from the scene can be recorded and packaged, they only do them to have the “Live” graphic up. Who cares.

  4. Two Milwaukee local news stations will suspend the use of live shots after the on-air deaths of two journalists in Virginia, according to Milwaukee media writer Duane Dudek.

    “Shots” probably isn’t the best word in this context.

  5. It is definitely a squelching of some form of Freedom of the Press and maybe even Freedom of Assembly. Self-inflicted, of course - no one’s making them do that.

    I wonder when the Constitutionalists will stand up and scream about this one the way they do about some of the other portions of the Constitution? Strictly a hypothetical question and not meant to start flame-throwing.

    Is this the direction we will all go, in an effort to NOT deal with the base problem?

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