Why You Should Never Assume.....
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When WDBJ Reporter Alison Parker was gunned down during her live shot in Roanoke, her parents never saw it.
Her parents, Andy and Barbara were still sleeping in bed when Parker was shot on live TV.
After the shooting, the couple had to decide if they should talk to the press, or stay silent on the matter?
“It was initially, ‘No, I can’t do this. This is too early,’” Andy said during a SMAD Day presentation on Friday.
When the media storm began to converge on Andy and Barbara Parker after their daughter Alison, a JMU alumna (’12), was killed during a live WDBJ-TV broadcast, they were hesitant to open their lives to the world.
“It was initially, ‘No, I can’t do this. This is too early,’” Andy Parker said at a conference last week. The Parker's were specking to Journalism students at James Madison University to help give their unique knowledge of the media and how they handled the shooting of their daughter and WDBJ Photographer Adam Ward.
Since then, the Parkers have been careful to avoid seeing or hearing about what transpired in the video.
Kelly’s producers spoke into earpieces, which Kelly and the Parkers were wearing in order to communicate with the control room. They asked specific questions about what they saw in the video, prompting Kelly to try to ask them during the show.
When Kelly began to speak, Andy cut her off and redirected her, saying that he and his wife hadn’t and never would watch the video of their daughter’s death.
“How could you ask me a question to lead me down that path?” Andy remembered thinking. “You just don’t do this.”
When the producer of “The Kelly File” texted Andy the next day to thank him, Andy responded with an “expletive-filled” message, expressing his frustration. Kelly called Andy the next day to apologize.
Andy referred to a journalist’s job as being similar to that of a doctor.
“You gotta be able to treat the patient and move on to the next one, but you can’t lose your humanity,” Andy said.
While the Parker's were talking to students about how to cover the news, maybe Megyn Kelly could have used a refresher course as well.
H/T The Breeze
