The drill is getting eerily familiar. There’s a report of a gunman on a college campus. Lockdown. Panic. Then an all-clear. The Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007 and last month’s shootings at Northern Illinois University have focused attention about the very real dangers of high-profile shootings. But what about the hoaxes and the scares? That’s what happened yesterday at Appalachian. Today, police said it was all a hoax, and they’re moving to file charges against the person who made it all up. A somewhat similar event happened at Ferrum College last week.
As journalist, uncertainty is part of the deal. But that said, it’s incredibly difficult to get folks to jump in their cars and drive 2+ hours on the rumor of a gunman being seen. But of course it has to be done. To not go, to say you fooled me once and you’re not going to fool me again, is to invite a larger problem: Not being there.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
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