Wendy S

I was appalled watching the coverage of the 4th of July mass shooting in Highland Park on this evening’s NBC Nightly News. We hear so much about how many perpetrators crave publicity and notoriety and how violent episodes attract hundreds, even thousands of followers on social media. And yet, during the story NBC chose to show numerous images of the suspect and his name was repeatedly broadcast aloud or in written form throughout the report. Within the first 30 seconds of Lester Holt’s introduction the suspect’s photo was shown 3 times. During the segment with Tom Llamas photos of the suspect were shown 6 times and the name repeated 5 times. With Pete Williams narrating the third segment, 10 images were shown and the name repeated at least 7 times. By my count 19 photos, the suspect’s name shown or mentioned 13 times. So much for preventing notoriety. Isn’t the incident traumatically memorable enough without you projecting the name and face of the perpetrator to the world? NBC, shame on you.