Newsrooms aren’t supposed to be the story

Journalists trained to cover dangers, but Maryland shooting is shocking

What happens when the newsroom becomes the news?

At The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., multiple people were shot by a single individual who fired into the newsroom. Five people were killed, and initial media reports said several others were injured.

Phil Davis, a reporter who was in the newsroom at the time, noted, “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.”

“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time. But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless,” Davis said afterward, according to the Associated Press.

Journalists know there is a risk to this job. Reporters go to scary places, and cover assignments in dangerous situations.

For example, journalists travel to war-torn nations on assignments to show the world what is unfolding.

Remember the iconic photo of the Saigon execution? Taken 50 years ago, it stunned America during Vietnam — and it was taken by Associated Press journalist Eddie Adams. Journalists on the ground, print and broadcast alike, sent home images that showed the true costs of war, despite the dangers to themselves.

Dangers can happen every day when reporting. There is a risk to covering a crime scene, to interviewing a complete stranger, to heading to a brush fire.

But here in the United States, one doesn’t expect to find danger in one’s own newsroom. One doesn’t expect to become the subject of the story. Journalists head to the danger, they report on the moments that most others flee — and not to become a part of the story, but to shine a light on the stories that might otherwise be overlooked.

Journalists don’t expect to cover tragedies like this, where five fellow newspaper employees lost their lives.

Today, our thoughts are with our colleagues at The Capital Gazette.