Oh, AP. Oh AP, AP, AP.

[spatch]

Remember when we could count on the Associated Press to write articles on even the worst of calamities with a non-sensationalistic bent? Remember when they had their own style guide? Remember those halcyon days of yesteryear? Yeah, well, you can go pack all your happy memories up and put 'em in the same place you put the pet rock, Brutalist architecture and chlorophyl toothpaste. I know this is an isolated incident, but this will give you some idea of what passes for quality control around there nowadays. Someone decided to get a little poetic (and horribly at that) in their account of the mall shootings in Omaha:

Hawkins carried out his shooting spree from the third floor of the Westroads Mall, the bullets from his rifle cutting through the sound of Christmas music as he terrorized shoppers and employees.

IT'S THIS MUSIC! HE HATES THIS MUSIC!
STAY AWAY FROM THE MUSIC!

Comments

[redtheblue.livejournal.com]

Good grief. There are no excuses for sexing up something like that, especially when it's just the nut graph! Why get creative there? The rest of the story is all quotes and text lifted straight from police press releases.

If this were a community reaction story, it would be different. But the only mention of the community is here, at the end of a paragraph about something else: "Churches in the area were setting up vigils to pray for survivors and remember the dead." That's where the real emotion is and where it would be sensible to report on it. Obviously the reporter (Oskar Garcia, Nebraska bureau writer currently assigned to state news) had other things on his mind, probably because he's assigned to Nebraska and this is his time to shine.

[zhym.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what that kind of line really says is, "Hot dang, all this time stuck in Nebraska is finally gonna pay off -- come to papa, Pulitzer!"

That, and I think it's easier for more seasoned national reporters to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the event. A good reporter has to shrug off some of the "holy crap" personal emotional impact and report the facts, at least in the first story.