For some reason in tragedies some reporters and anchors seem to forget to be human. Anyone who has reported on a tragedy has done it. It’s easier to distance yourself from the story. I understand. The problem is when we forget about the victims and for some reason find it more important to point fingers. People have been asking me over the past day why the cable news nets continue to ask all the what if questions. I agree that it is our job to do ask questions and determine if there was any wrong doing, but no one has been able to show there was. The University has done a great job explaining why they did what they did. Let focus on the future, the future of campus safety across the nation and the future of the students affected by this tragedy.

One of my favorite reporters is Shepard Smith. He has a tendency to be a bit over the top, but it’s times like these where he shines. As one blog pointed out he was “the only anchor or correspondent to ask a student being interviewed ‘how are you doing?’ and sound like he really meant it.”

Here is his transcript from Fox & Friends. A lot of people would say he overstepped his bounds as a journalist but I think he said what needed to be said.

I’ve been to a lot of these kind of scenes… and I know what’s going to happen in the next few days.

These kids are going to lose a lot of their innocence. They’re going to realize that their university will never be the same, that their lives will never be the same, that Virginia Tech will never again first and foremost be thought of for the Hookies who make this school so proud on the football field or the fine acad rep that this university has garnered, it’s going to be remembered as the place where 33 people died… they’ll never be able to get past that.

A real learning experience is coming here. They will look back on the timing of it all and say ‘if only.’ If only the storm hadn’t been so bad and they could have gotten helicopters up; if only they had decided to close down the campus; if only they had been able to get more students out on ambulances. But the if only’s are passed. And now the hope is, together, that they’ll be able to get through this.”