The Tragedy That Didn't Seize TV; Why Was Columbine a Bigger Story Than the Massacre in Atlanta?
The TV images were searingly familiar. Terror-stricken people scrambling to safety. Heavily armed police officers hustling to the scene. Covered bodies being loaded into ambulances.</br></br>The killing of 12 people by a gunman in Atlanta on Thursday brought back echoes of Columbine High School in April. In several important ways, the two events were similar--in the means and method of attack, in their senselessness and amount of carnage.</br></br>But where Columbine lingered in the national consciousness for many days, the Atlanta killings were struggling for media attention yesterday, less than 24 hours after the first reports broke.</br></br>All three national cable news networks carried live coverage of a news conference by Atlanta's police chief; all three later aired tapes of the initial 911 calls. But by 2 p.m. yesterday, Fox News Channel was busy analyzing a Congressional tax-cut proposal and MSNBC was summing up the action on the bond market. Despite the proximity of the news to its headquarters, Atlanta-based CNN slipped in reports on the stock market and President Clinton as well. The broadcast networks never turned away from soap operas. "Jerry Springer" was not preempted.</br></br>To news analysts and news decision-makers, the relative indifference to Atlanta boils down to two key factors: the victims and the setting.