Life-Changing Experience

Most people have interesting and entertaining stories to tell. Some tell stories that make thousands of people laugh. Nobody has as intriguing or touching stories as Shane Fitzegerald does. Upon his recent visit to Pennridge, I heard one of the most heartbreaking but impactful stories I’ve ever heard.

The Columbine Shooting is never an easy subject to write, speak or think about in general. But trying to report about it while the effects of that tragic day unfolded, is another level of insanity that journalists must go through in order to get stories that are newsworthy. It is very unethical in some ways but necessary in terms of the world’s need to understand what happens each day. Shane describes his experience with the Columbine Shooting as very emotional and traumatizing. He still feels this way even 23 years later. That goes without saying that April 20th, 1999 changed his life, as well as many others, forever. Shane and his crew captured many images that day showing truly what happened to the people involved at Columbine High School. One image captured a very graphic image of a student lying motionless after being gunned down by the students armed with guns. The other images they took were of students crying, running, or the police attempting to get inside the building.

However, this specific image would cross a line that is very hard to cross. Shane describes the most ethical thing that he and his team could do was not post the image. Time passed and the head of their team had talked to the parent of the student who was gunned down to grant permission to use this image for the press that was being published. If I was the parent, I would’ve most likely said no, but what he said surprised me and changed my perspective on the situation. Shane’s editor came back to the writers and said that they should put the image into their article. Every member of Shane’s team was confused as to how they were able to do this. The parent said, “ You have to run the photo, the world must see what happened to my son”. These words still give me the chills even thinking about them. However, he is right. It shows that it is journalists’ job to inform the world and bring awareness to major issues and problems occurring around the world.

The main takeaway from this story is that a journalist’s job will never be boring, always different each day and when you become a journalist you must be willing to possibly endure life-changing situations. Especially those who reported during world wars, who saw thousands of bodies drop beside them while they stand there capturing images mentally and physically feeling useless as they are unable to help them. Journalism has a fun and positive side to it, but every fairy tale doesn’t always have a happy ending.