Alan Pergament: NBC, CBS nightly newscasts, local TV news make tough journalistic call

To name the shooter or not, that is the journalistic question.

Local and national newscasts have been trying to minimize or ignore giving the name of the gunman charged in Saturday's racist mass shooting at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue.

“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and “The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” apparently have decided to no longer to name the gunman who killed 10 Black people at Tops on Jefferson Avenue. Holt referred to the gunman as “the suspect” or “the shooter” on Monday. Reporter Kate Snow called him “the shooter” on the same newscast.

The gunman was referred to as “the shooter” on O’Donnell’s newscast Tuesday.

“ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir” did name the shooter on Tuesday’s newscast sparingly, a traditional journalistic approach also being practiced by this newspaper.

On Wednesday, Holt's newscast and O'Donnell's newscast still didn't name the suspect, while Muir's did.

On the local newscasts at 11 p.m. Tuesday, WGRZ-TV (Channel 2), WIVB-TV (Channel 4) and WKBW-TV (Channel 7) all declined to name the gunman, with each referring to call him as “the suspect” or “the shooter.”

That changed Wednesday. WKBW anchor-reporter Ashley Rowe did name him on the station affiliated with ABC in her 6 p.m. report on Wednesday.

WGRZ reporter Dave McKinley named him in his 6 p.m. Wednesday report.

WIVB reporter Chris Horvatits didn't verbally name him at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but the suspect's name was visible from a New York State document shown that charged him with first-degree murder. 

The decision to ignore naming the shooter anymore by two national television networks prevents him from getting as much name recognition that he wants. The less attention he is given nationally, the less chance he will inspire copycats.

I chose not to name him in my online column Monday reviewing the local coverage.

However, I understand the journalistic position of the outlets who still choose to give the shooter’s name sparingly. It enables people who knew the suspect to come forward with any information they might have on him. That was especially true in initial reports when he was named.

Of course, anyone who wants to know his name can just look for it online.

The names that should get the focus are of the victims, and all local and national outlets have done a very good job in the days following the shooting giving them the attention they deserve. I especially liked the way WKBW ended its 11 p.m. Tuesday newscast by showing President Biden giving brief biographies of their lives in his visit here. Unfortunately, the station ended its newscast before Biden had finished.

WIVB anchor Jacquie Walker said after Biden spoke in Buffalo what many people were thinking after learning about the 10 Black victims. She said the stories show “how good these people are, how important they were to the community.” Amen.

On Monday morning, I headed to WGR radio’s vault to listen to the first hour of Howard Simon and Jeremy White’s sports show because their discussion of the shootings was getting so much attention on Twitter. I was a little confused because the hour was labeled, “Do We Feel Bad for Leafs fans?” (Quick answer: No.)

To their credit, Simon and White had a very interesting dialogue about their feelings and topics related to the shooting, including the influence of certain elements of the media that spread hate.

White accurately noted that airing divisive talk has been “a successful business model for some media companies.”

True. However, that includes the company, now called Audacy, that owns WGR and sister station WBEN.

For years, WBEN carried the late Rush Limbaugh, who fanned the flames of hate. I turned on WBEN while driving Tuesday night and discovered it now carries a three-hour talk show featuring Dana Loesch, the former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association. In the brief time I listened, Loesch questioned the motivation of Biden to come to Buffalo when he didn’t come to other places where mass shootings have occurred.

An ABC News reporter essentially answered Loesch while covering the mass shooting here Sunday. At the end of his report, he said the Buffalo shooting was one of 198 mass shootings this year. If President Biden went everywhere there was one, sadly it would be his full-time job. Shortly after the ABC reporter noted the number of mass shootings this year, there was another mass shooting in a California church.

While I have praised the local TV coverage of the mass shootings, I was shaking my head a couple of times over remarks made by anchors and reporters.

The first time came on Saturday when during a WGRZ interview local attorney John Elmore suggested the celebration of teenage shooter Kyle Rittenhouse after he was acquitted in the 2020 shooting of two men in Kenosha, Wis., may influence other teenagers.

After saying he didn’t want to be political, Elmore noted that Rittenhouse even eventually had his picture taken with the president at the time – he didn’t name President Trump. Channel 2 anchor Scott Levin quickly interjected it wasn’t time to make things political. Elmore was ahead of the story. Since that exchange, Rittenhouse’s treatment has been blamed in some national quarters for possibly inspiring other teenagers to act violently.

I was also surprised by a comment made by WGRZ reporter Dave McKinley after Biden’s speech Tuesday. McKinley gave Biden a backhanded compliment by saying of his speech, “he did it in a way that wasn’t over the top.” McKinley added it was the first time he heard the president say that the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville in 2017 inspired him to run for the presidency. McKinley must not have followed Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign too closely. Biden said that repeatedly during a campaign against Trump in which he argued the presidential race was for the soul of the nation.

Since the shooting, many people have told me they had never heard of Twitch, where the shooter livestreamed his monstrous act. I’ve written about it a few times because, although it is primarily viewed as a video game site, it also carries some original TV programs.

Most notably, NBC Universal tried to attract younger viewers with programming on Twitch during last summer’s Tokyo Olympics because it is popular with gamers who are in the younger demographic more likely to enjoy the new Olympic sports of skateboarding, climbing and surfing.