America’s national correspondents, fresh from covering a slaughter in Colorado Springs on Friday that left three dead, are already filing stories from the scene of another mass shooting.
As early reports of casualties from law enforcement sources surface, a sense of fatigue pervades the public discussion surrounding the latest incident, which took place at a building complex in San Bernardino, California.
Someone just sent an internal email to our reporters about stories on this shooting with the phrase "You know the drill" in it. Sadly true.
— NickBaumann (@NickBaumann) December 2, 2015
Another return to the office another CNN briefing on another active shooter – #Itsgettingold
— Nikki Usher Layser (@nikkiusher) December 2, 2015
We're now at point where a mass shooting breaks out when the previous one is so recent that it was still lede story in that morning's NYT.
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) December 2, 2015
Mass Shooting Twitter slowly grinds into gear.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 2, 2015
and again, the fact that "mass shooting twitter” is a real and recognizable thing speaks volumes https://t.co/ZhPHpdc0GR
— Kelsey M. Sutton (@kelseymsutton) December 2, 2015
Not sure what more we can say. We’ve gotten so used to these shootings. We know the routine. Maybe that’s the saddest part – it’s routine
— Evan Barnes (@evan_b) December 2, 2015
at one point does one declare that all of us, collectively, have ptsd?
— dan sinker (@dansinker) December 2, 2015
a cartoon we ran this week … https://t.co/fYV8enyl2f pic.twitter.com/z7U2M2CwEi
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) December 2, 2015
everything is terrible
— Jared Keller (@jaredbkeller) December 2, 2015
@stevebuttry At this point we could prob create a "template" for journalists breaking mass shootings, eh? Fill in the blanks. So depressing.
— Jessica Weiss (@jessweiss1) December 2, 2015
The sense of routine was also palpable on CNN, where anchor Brooke Baldwin underscored an expert’s description of police protocol for a “typical mass shooting.”
As minutes passed without a definitive account from authorities, the familiar elements of mass shooting coverage began to surface: overhead helicopter shots showing evacuees, chyrons touting halting tidbits of information, eyewitnesses recounting fragmented accounts of the shooting — and a lot of uncertainty as the major networks went wall-to-wall with special reports on the incident.
The overwhelming sentiment from journalists following the event was one of weary resignation to covering violence that has become increasingly regular in recent years. This is the second mass shooting today and the 355th in 2015, according to The Washington Post.
As of this writing, the suspects in the shooting are still on the loose, and authorities say at least 14 people have been killed.
