Media Scrambled To Cover Shootings

Media Gather At Dallas City Hall

TV-news organizations scrambled to cover a horrifying series of shootings Thursday night in Dallas in which five police officers were killed and others wounded, setting a nation witnessing a series of escalating incidents of gun violence further on edge.

Variety reports, Fox News, CNN , CBSN and MSNBC began covering the events Thursday evening and overnight, while the broadcast networks began coverage in earnest in the wee hours of the night, with CBS anchor Scott Pelley already in Dallas Friday morning.

Media on ground watching big group of cops screaming. pic.twitter.com/pvcbGpi0VA

— Sarah Mervosh (@smervosh) July 8, 2016

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, who hosts a 9 p.m. show, was among the first to bring the Dallas events to national television, presenting coverage that she explicitly told viewers was hard to describe with definition.

CNN’s Don Lemon began covering the events early in the 10 p.m. hour.

TIMELINE OF MEDIA COVERAGE: Click Here

MSNBC and NBC News brought Brian Williams on to the cable network at 12:35 a.m. to anchor coverage; Williams would subsequently lead a special report on NBC at 1 a.m. NBC offered its MSNBC coverage as a simulcast for local stations overnight.

Elaine Quijano led coverage for the CBSN live stream late Thursday evening, while Shepard Smith anchored for Fox News between 11 p.m. and 1 am., after Megyn Kelly led another hour, pre-empting the regularly scheduled “Hannity.”