The first day of my career out of college as a journalist, a reporter team was shot to death on live air.
On August 26, 2015, I had uprooted my entire life and moved to Montgomery, AL. I really did not completely understand my job description, and I definitely had not adjusted to the lack of good Tex-Mex or the idea that BBQ was pork, not brisket.
I was incredibly nervous driving through a tight parking garage in a new city for my first day, and that’s when CNN cut in to tell me the breaking news.
I will never forget the feeling of vulnerability when I heard the news. Journalists are racked through the mud on the daily based on their outfits, weight, hair style, makeup for that day and when they are reporting on things people don’t like to hear.
Many people hate us and do not respect us, so this type of tragedy is always a looming threat. We just chose to pretend it’s not there because we love our jobs.
And there I was – walking into a giant building where the top floors housed one of the greatest media companies I have ever worked for. This was what I had chosen, and I was proud of it, despite everything that happened that day.
So on Friday, August 26, 2016, I woke up and took a look at my one year journey.
I am in a different city, in a new position, in a different home. But the people are the same – still hateful, still ignorant. It’s amazing how people don’t respect journalists as human beings.
Just in my few months here, I have seen people threaten my coworkers, degrade their appearance and constantly make hateful comments on everything and anything.
I have also seen my coworkers tear up after the Dallas police shooting, help a family find a home and bring a stolen walker back to a disabled child.
I now work with two people who knew Allison Parker and Adam Ward personally, so the reality of the tragedy was blaring on Friday.
It’s crazy that after a year, no one has learned. It’s amazing to see how fickle people are with causes. It’s so apparent that no one really cares about anything, they just love to shout about things on social media.
Even more apparent when you have the job of filtering people’s comments just to make sure people aren’t terrorizing others on our news Facebook page.
Sad that’s a part of my job, isn’t it?
I don’t have any solutions. I just have observations – which are really useless.
My only advice is maybe we should try to quit hating and obsessing over things that don’t matter and take an actual look at yourselves. Maybe improving yourself should be more important than tearing down others for their lack of perfection.
Although I am sure that advice falls on deaf ears. People who attack others on the internet think they are some kind of hero because they typed some words and hit enter.
