National and local media converged on Aurora on Friday to bring the latest national horror into focus: Relegated to pictures of a theater exterior, reporters scrambled to piece together eyewitness accounts of a mass shooting. By midmorning, FBI and police officials told reporters of the suspect’s “booby-trapped apartment,” which “looks pretty sophisticated.”
Word of an impending detonation, and live pictures of firemen bashing in the third-floor windows of the suspect’s apartment, filled the screen. One among the many lingering images: an overturned popcorn container, replayed endlessly on Fox31.
Network news teams scrambled to report from Denver. The evening newscasts, “Today,” “48 Hours,” “Dateline,” Anderson Cooper and others immediately mobilized to be on the scene Friday evening.
E-mail, Twitter and Facebook played an increased role, as victims bypassed traditional media to tell their own stories. Broadcasters at times read the latest information off the Internet.
The prevalence of unconfirmed reports in cyberspace prompted Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates to issue “a caution about social media.” He asked journalists to be “responsible.”
“I can tell you, we are already finding there are a lot of pranks” and misinformation online, Oates said.
Speaking in Florida, President Barack Obama shared the feeling going through many Americans’ minds: “My two daughters go to the movies.”
The media went through their too-familiar paces, from the front lawn of the suspect’s parents’ San Diego home to regular briefings from officials, who dutifully spelled their names on camera.
Heartbreaking calls from distraught parents to local TV stations, unable to locate their children, were broadcast on the air.
Information trickled out slowly regarding the suspect’s mention of the Joker and similarities to a Batman comic (a topic on KHOW Radio).
Measured tones and careful framing of visuals marked the media reporting, with only rare glimpses of a trail of blood on the ground. After overnight images of bloodied victims were broadcast and uploaded to social media, the morning gave way to exterior shots of the crime scene, hospitals and the police command center.
For the most part, Denver anchors left it to eyewitnesses to express the emotionally charged despair, anger and bewilderment many felt.
Much information regarding the gunman surfaced first on Twitter and only later on TV. Kyle Clark of 9News was among the best at explaining the ground rules of TV coverage to viewers.
“This is not a foot race,” he said.
The station would broadcast details such as names of those injured only when they were adequately confirmed to avoid having to “walk it back.”
The day’s worst media over-reach: ABC News’ Brian Ross suggested that the suspect, James Eagan Holmes, might be affiliated with the Colorado Tea Party, based on a mention on that group’s website of an Aurora man with the name “Jim Holmes.”
“Now we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes,” Ross said, “but it is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, CO.” ABC News later issued a clarification: Different Jim Holmes.
KMGH-Channel 7 broke the news that Holmes allegedly had planned the act meticulously and even took a seat in the audience. He allegedly bought a ticket, sat in the theater for 15 minutes, got up, propped open the emergency door, brought his car around and commenced shooting.
ABC News broke the story that the suspect told authorities after the shootings that he “was the Joker.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp
