Their job is to share thoughts about football, but they spoke softheartedly and eloquently about Wednesday’s horrific events. Email not displaying correctly?
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** OPINION
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** ESPN stepped up with strong and emotional coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade shooting
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Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

Imagine you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan. You start the day enjoying the giddy celebration of a Super Bowl parade. You end up in a mass shooting.

Sadly, The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona tweeted ([link removed]) a grim sentiment that is all too accurate: “Two American traditions like no other — football and mass shootings.”

At least one person is dead and at least 22 were shot, some critically, at the end of the Chiefs’ rally on Wednesday. Some of the injured include children. Kansas City police said three people have been detained.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said in a news conference, “I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment.”

Graves said more than 800 members of law enforcement were assigned to the parade and rally.

Lisa Money of Kansas City, Kansas, told The Associated Press’ Heather Hollingsworth and Nick Ingram ([link removed]) , “I can’t believe it really happened. Who in their right mind would do something like this? This is supposed to be a day of celebration for everybody in the city and the surrounding area. And then you’ve got some idiot that wants to come along and do something like this.”

The Chiefs put out a statement ([link removed]) that said, in part, “We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally.” The statement also gave the Chiefs’ thoughts to the victims and their families, and thanked law enforcement and first responders.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt started his newscast by saying, “A moment of hometown pride and celebration turned to fear and bloodshed in Kansas City.”

As far as media coverage, some of the strongest coverage and commentary came from ESPN. Initially, ESPN turned over its airways to Kansas City’s KMBC, which had live reports from the scene. But ESPN also returned to “NFL Live,” where the analysts talked extensively about the shooting.

For those commonly asked to give their thoughts on football, they spoke emotionally yet eloquently about Wednesday’s horrific events.

ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter said, “This now, tragically, unfortunately, will go down as the parade that is marred by a shooting, by a death, by injuries. In what is now the latest incident that we've had in our country. And we're not immune to this anywhere at any time at any moment. It can be in temples, churches, malls, stores, nightclubs, and Super Bowl parades. Shootings are a regular part of our society — tragically.”

ESPN’s Marcus Spears said, “When I first heard it, you know what I thought, unfortunately, is this is who we are. This is who we are. So, now the ever-revolving cycle is going to start. The news outlets will talk about gun control. They'll have politicians on from either side to talk about what needs to be done. … And then we’ll have a ‘prayers up,’ I'm sure that's what’s happening right now. ‘Prayers up’ is all over the place.”

Spears added, “Then we’ll go back to everyday, scheduled programming. … I was excited to come on today and talk about the Kansas City Chiefs’ parade. This is the back-to-back Super Bowl champions. It doesn’t even matter anymore!”

ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick said, “We have totally lost the ability to really care about others. How else do you put this? … You know what, we'll hear people say, 'Well, it’s not the guns; it’s the people. It’s not the guns; it’s the people.’ OK, I’ve heard that so much that I don't even really know where to go with that at this point.”

Schefter added, “Today, it’s the Chiefs’ turn. It's at a Super Bowl parade. Tomorrow, it will be somewhere else. Somebody else will lose their life, and we will continue to come on and try to make sense of something that is inexplicable.”

Awful Announcing’s Chris Novak has complete coverage ([link removed]) , including video, of ESPN and “NFL Live’s” strong and emotional reaction to the shooting.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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** Worth mentioning
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As I mentioned, ESPN interrupted regular programming to cover the shooting and dedicated large portions of “SportsCenter” to the news. At 5:35 p.m., instead of showing its highly popular “Pardon the Interruption,” ESPN aired news coverage of the tragedy. CNN and MSNBC were covering the shooting as well.

And over on Fox News? “The Five” was doing a segment with this chyron: “Florida tough on crime … California is in decline.” That segment was followed up with: “Anti-Israel Protesters Continue to Wreak Havoc.”

This is more of an indictment of “The Five” than anything else, because Fox News covered the shooting extensively before “The Five” and started its 6 p.m. Eastern hour with more shooting coverage. And Fox News had live coverage that FSI, which was airing the parade live, picked up.


** He’s baaack
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Veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera. (Courtesy: NewsNation)

Geraldo Rivera isn’t done with TV just yet.

The veteran television journalist is joining NewsNation as a correspondent-at-large. His first appearance was Wednesday night on Chris Cuomo’s show.

Michael Corn, president of news at NewsNation, said in a statement, “Geraldo is a legendary journalist whose talent and experience is unrivaled in the industry. We look forward to him joining the network and providing our viewers with his one-of-a-kind analysis.”

Rivera, 80, has been in television for 50 years, most recently with Fox News. He joined the conservative network in 2001 and was a regular panelist on “The Five.” But when he was fired from “The Five” last June, he decided to leave the network entirely.


** Associated Press gives select nonprofit local newsrooms access to its election results
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For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague Angela Fu.

The Associated Press is giving certain newsrooms that are members of the Institute for Nonprofit News access to its election results and survey data, the organization announced ([link removed]) Wednesday.

The project, supported by the Google News Initiative, is available to INN members who have a revenue of $5 million or less. Roughly 90% of INN’s more than 425 member newsrooms qualify for the benefit, which includes ready-to-publish graphics of the data. Though some large news outlets have their own election teams that call races, the AP’s race calls are widely considered the gold standard ([link removed]) . The goal of the partnership is to provide small, local newsrooms with data analysis they might not have the capacity to undertake on their own.

“It’s essential that we do all we can to combat elections-related misinformation for the good of the American democracy,” AP vice president and head of news strategy and operations David Scott said in a press release.

At the San Antonio Report, election night coverage requires the help of nearly everyone in the newsroom, editor-in-chief Leigh Munsil said. Having AP’s election results will help the 14-person staff track congressional and state races that cover areas outside of Bexar County, where San Antonio is located.

“That’s always a big challenge for us on election night — those districts that go outside of the county,” Munsil said. “To compile all that information quickly is not easy at all. And so (the AP collaboration) is going to make a huge difference.”

For the Mississippi Free Press, the new partnership dovetails well with its recent decision ([link removed]) to cover more national election news. In the past, the outlet has re-reported AP results, editor and CEO Donna Ladd said. She is looking forward to being able to directly use AP’s election results and data to run more analytical pieces.

“It’s just another step to establishing us as a trusted voice, a local news voice on what is going on because we have immediate and direct access to the data,” Ladd said. “I think our readers will appreciate that.”


** The feud turns up a skosh
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I’m loving this little mini-feud between podcasters Bill Simmons and Pat McAfee. It started during football season when Simmons did a funnyimpression ([link removed]) of McAfee. It seemed harmless and all in good fun but apparently it got under McAfee’s skin. This week, McAfee seemed to take it up a notch on his show, which airs on ESPN, by telling Simmons to “keep running his mouth.” ([link removed])

Then on the most recent episode of his podcast, Simmons seemed to take another shot at McAfee when talking about TV sports ratings. Simmons said, “And then you see ESPN, at the end of the month, they're like, ‘Highest ratings ever for “Get Up!” and all these different shows.’ Same for Fox. All their shows are up. Everybody's ratings are basically up except for the NBA and whoever replaced the 12 p.m. ‘SportsCenter.’ If your ratings don't go up, it's probably a bad sign.”

The “whoever replaced the 12 p.m. SportsCenter” is McAfee’s show, and of course, Simmons absolutely knows that.

The Big Lead’s Liam McKeone wrote ([link removed]) , “A nice, subtle jab from Bill here. And there’s a bit of an edge to it too given how McAfee’s ratings has already caused trouble for both him and ESPN. It was a report about his poor viewership numbers that led to McAfee openly accusing executive Norby Williamson of leaking information. Nothing really ended up happening there but it did show that McAfee gets more than a bit sensitive about this sort of thing …”

And as McKeone notes, this is all great for the rest of us, writing, “Two guys with huge platforms and daily shows getting mad at each other will provide immense entertainment. Even better that they seem to be mad at each other over basically nothing. Nobody made Simmons do a McAfee impression last fall and nobody made McAfee randomly bring it up on the Tuesday after the Super Bowl several months later. They're just taking shots at each other for the sake of taking shots.”


** And now more media news, tidbits and links …
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* Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein reports on The New York Times’ flagship newsletter in “‘A New Voice for the Times’: Is ‘The Morning’ the Future?” ([link removed])
* Variety’s Brian Steinberg with “Disney Folds ABC News, Stations Under Debra OConnell.” ([link removed])
* The next sentence you read is true. Theaters in Russia may soon show President Vladimir Putin’s interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The Daily Beast’s Allison Quinn has more ([link removed]) .
* It’s a day late for Valentine’s Day, but you’ll still enjoy this. The New York Times’ Melonyce McAfee and Catherine Pearson compile, “100 Small Acts of Love.” ([link removed])
* Speaking of Valentine’s Day, my Poynter colleague Annie Aguiar had a great idea and the result was “We asked for your newsroom love stories. You didn’t disappoint.” ([link removed]) (By the way, I met my wife in a newsroom and we’ve now been married for 33 years.)
* This is really fun from The New York Times. It’s a look at actors in real life when they are not working. Photographs by James Nachtwey and interviews by Amy X. Wang: “Actors in the wild.” ([link removed])
* Washington Post chief film critic Ann Hornaday with “10 of the most promising movies on tap this spring.” ([link removed])
* ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark announced on X ([link removed]) that his deal with the network has expired and added, “Time to make a decision.” Clark said in the tweet that he thought he deserved to make more before signing his deal three years ago, so that hints that he might be looking to leave now. He’s outstanding at what he does and might have some leverage this time around. But he needs to think long and hard before leaving ESPN. Many who leave the network go on to greater success. But then again, many never find ESPN’s level of exposure and success. ESPN still feels like the place you want to be if you’re an NFL analyst.
* Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has signed a multi-year extension to continue appearing on ESPN’s “First Take.” Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy broke the story and has the details ([link removed]) .
* Ben Axelrod of Awful Announcing with “The 5 biggest sports media storylines of the NFL offseason.” ([link removed])
* Longtime CBS Sports announcer Verne Lundquist announced Wednesday ([link removed]) that he will call his final Masters golf tournament in April. It will be his 40th Masters. Lundquist, 83, has been at CBS for most of the past 42 years and has called golf, the NFL, college basketball and college football, where he was best known for working SEC games. His work on the 16th hole at Augusta National, home of the Masters, is legendary. Here is probably his most famous call ([link removed]) at the Masters.


** More resources for journalists
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* The 2024 Poynter Journalism Prizes ([link removed]) are open for entries. To enter, go to the contest website. ([link removed]) The deadline for entries is tomorrow, Feb. 16.
* Essential Skills for Rising Newsroom Leaders (Seminar) (May) — Apply by March 26 ([link removed]) .
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* Got a story you’d like to write for Poynter? Email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) with your idea, approximate timeline and word count.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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