SeleneCapGaz

Hey John! It was wonderful to see the community come together that night, but it was surreal in a very different way for me. With such a large crowd and a lot of politicians speaking at the night vigil I went to, it was a bit overwhelming. I think one thing I've learned from this is that a lot of things that are supposed to be healing are meant for people more detached from the trauma.

For me, walking in the 4th of July parade was what was surreal in a good way. As reporters, we're not used to being in the spotlight. It felt weird to have people cheering for us. But people were also crying, hugging us, and holding up signs with the names of our friends. It felt like the whole town was saying thank you. I hold that moment with me in my toughest times.

In a major shooting, there are multiple stories. There are stories that have to be done about the shooter, and what we know about what led them to this. Does the shooter live in your neighborhood? How did they get their weapon? These are the kinds of things people need to know. Though you do have to be cautious in that coverage.

You have to be careful with the kinds of pictures you publish and how often you publish them. Editors need to ask themselves if they're publishing or posting photos of shooters because they're more likely to get clicks, or if it's because people need to know what that person looks like. Editors need to understand how traumatic it is for gun violence victims to see photos of shooters, especially ones accused of the shooting they went through. When those photos are used as featured images and randomly pop up on our feeds, or are the first thing we see on their site or in the paper, it's awful.

Sometimes in the heat of a big story, journalists also rely on lazy reporting. They call the shooter "lone" as if they're a wolf. My editor Rob, would always cut out unnecessary words. So if it is a shooter. You don't need to say "a lone shooter." "A" means one.

We prefer to focus on victims. We try to tell their stories and the stories of their loved ones who now have to grieve. When we have to write about our accused shooter, we try to publish photos of our five lost friends: Rob, Gerald, Wendi, John and Rebecca. And we always write their names. Those names are far more important than any shooter's.

I'd like people to think more critically about the news they prefer to consume, and be more thoughtful instead of dismissive. Sometimes people don't like the content of the news, so they defer to calling it fake or saying there's a bias. But if you do some digging, you could find that same piece of news from many other reliable sources-- maybe even your preferred news source.

We're here to tell the truth. There's a lot of people out there attacking us for that. Whether we write about a man stalking a woman he went to the local high school with or something the president said or did, we're just here to tell the truth so people can be informed.

Sometimes we do make mistakes, and those warrant corrections. For us, those are devastating. It's humiliating to announce our mistakes publicly, but we do it because we hold ourselves accountable as much as anyone else. Hold us to those corrections, but if you don't want to be informed don't attack us for it.

Thank you!

Hi! Thank you for your kindness.

1. So we're not in the same office anymore. We're in a discrete temporary office, working on getting a new permanent space in the next year.
2. Since we lost about a third of our staff in the shooting, we've had help from volunteer reporters. We've had former Capital reporters come back as far and most recent as Kelcie Pegher from the LA Times. We've also taken a much greater consideration into covering the victims of mass shootings, rather than the shooter. Not to mention we've got to cover the upcoming trial.