“Systemic failures.” That’s how a special Texas House committee described law enforcement response in a 77-page report about the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24.
Nearly 400 officers, including some from federal agencies, were on the scene that day, but took an “overall lackadaisical approach,” according to the report.
The New York Times’ J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval wrote, “The findings represented the most complete outside account of what took place during the 77 minutes between when the gunman began firing inside the classrooms and when the police finally stormed in and ended the May 24 massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead. But the report found that a flawless police response would not have saved most of the victims, who suffered devastating injuries when they were shot with a high-powered AR-15-style rifle by a gunman who had been waiting for his 18th birthday to purchase the weapon legally.”
Writing for CNN, Emma Tucker, Shimon Prokupecz, Dakin Andone and Peter Nickeas have “5 key takeaways from the Uvalde shooting report and video revealing failures in law enforcement response.”
Meanwhile, Prokupecz obtained police body cam video that hadn’t been seen publicly before now. It shows just how chaotic it was inside the school that day, and just how indecisive law enforcement had been.
MSNBC opinion columnist Frank Figliuzzi has a new column: “It's time to talk about criminal charges for Uvalde police leaders.” During an appearance on Monday’s “Morning Joe,” Figliuzzi told co-host Mika Brzezinski that it wasn’t easy for him to write such a column because he used to carry a badge. He was the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI and served 25 years as a special agent.
In his column, Figliuzzi wrote, “I instinctively give the benefit of the doubt to cops because I know they have one of the toughest jobs in our society. When I discuss police use of deadly force as a television analyst, I usually remind viewers that we weren’t there, initial appearances are often incomplete, and we need to wait for more facts.”
However, Figliuzzi wrote, “I watched the entire video. I heard the crack of over 100 rounds fired by the shooter. I watched through the perspective of a 25-year law enforcement veteran and as the former head of internal shooting inquiries for the FBI. I watched as a parent and grandparent. What I saw didn’t answer all of my questions, but it did prompt a new one: Was the Uvalde shooter the only criminal in the school that day? Because what I saw in that school video, in my professional opinion, may be a crime — by the police.”
The media has taken criticism for its relentless pursuit of the truth about what happened that horrific day, and the more we learn, the more we realize that many questions still remain unanswered. And that pursuit of the truth is more important than ever.
Meanwhile …
I read a piece on CNN.com from Adam Charlton, the outgoing executive producer of “CNN Newsroom With Pamela Brown,” and found it heartbreaking. The headline: “The fear of gun violence is ending my American dream.” Charlton and his wife are from the United Kingdom but now live in the United States, where both of their children were born.
Charlton writes, “… the tragedy of modern America is that it is mired in a civil war. Two political tribes, talking past one another, which has supercharged a now violent culture fueled by the idolization of guns.”
You don’t have to be from another country to find the current state of affairs in this country disturbing.
Pulitzer Board stands by its awards
The Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2018 went to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of Russian interference in the U.S. election and its connections to the Donald Trump campaign.
Trump — and some of his supporters — have complained that the Times and Post should have their awards rescinded. Trump has repeatedly argued that the articles were based on “false reporting” and called the stories “no more than a politically motivated farce which attempted to spin a false narrative that my campaign supposedly colluded with Russia despite a complete lack of evidence underpinning this allegation.”
On Monday, the Pulitzer Board put out a statement saying that the awards will stand. The board never mentions Trump by name, but said it commissioned “two independent reviews of the work submitted by those organizations to our National Reporting competition. Both reviews were conducted by individuals with no connection to the institutions whose work was under examination, nor any connection to each other. The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
The statement concluded with, “The 2018 Pulitzer Prizes in National Reporting stand.”
Cover story
NBC’s “Today” show is launching its first-ever digital cover series today. The first cover is Issa Rae. It will run quarterly across Today.com and all of Today’s platforms, including broadcast, streaming and social.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “The belief is that a series of deep-dive stories on newsmakers and cultural figures launched via the show’s digital channels will lure new audiences interested in lifestyle and consumer news.”
Libby Leist, senior vice president of “Today” and NBC News, told Steinberg, “We are definitely in a competitive space, and the advantage we have is the amplification of content across different platforms. Nobody else has a broadcast, a digital site, a streaming channel, radio shows from SiriusXM and a podcast and newsletters. We are really trying to age down our audience across the brand. … Digital and social platforms are a great way to do that, a reinvention of the ‘Today’ brand for newer and younger audiences.”
Man, it’s hot
