Much of the U.S. woke up Monday to the horrific news that a shooter had opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas late Sunday night. The mass shooting, now the worst in American history, left nearly 60 people dead — including the shooter, Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nev. — and more than 500 injured. The crowd had gathered in a parking lot outside the Mandalay Bay for the Route 91 Harvest Festival, which featured several country music concerts.
Like the first responders who serve Las Vegas, many journalists, TV reporters and network newscasters didn’t sleep at all.
The network morning shows — ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today — went live with the news starting at 7 a.m. ET, and then were proceeded by special reports on all three networks that rolled into the regular broadcasts, reports NewscastStudio.com.
Meanwhile, all three of the Big 3 network anchors — ABC’s David Muir, CBS’ Anthony Mason, NBC’s Lester Holt — as well as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow headed to Vegas, reports Variety.
President Donald Trump, who earlier Monday called the mass shooting an “act of pure evil,” pulled out of an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity scheduled for Wednesday in order to travel to Las Vegas. Trump still plans on visiting Puerto Rico in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria..
ABC’s Dancing with the Stars will open its live show on Monday with a moment of silence for the Vegas victims, ABC said Monday. The show also will be delayed as Muir anchors a live five-minute update on the situation, after anchoring a special one-hour edition of World News Tonight at 6:30 p.m., with correspondents Matt Gutman and Linsey Davis reporting live from Las Vegas. Later on Monday, ABC will air Nightline at 12:35 a.m. anchored by Juju Chang in Las Vegas.
Monday Night Football on ESPN also reversed course on a decision not to air the national anthem, which will play along with a moment of silence before the Washington Redskins take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
The CW decided to postpone its two-night iHeartRadio specials, some of which were shot last month in the same location where the shootings took place.
“Out of respect to the victims of last Sunday’s terrible tragedy in Las Vegas, and their families, The CW Network and iHeartMedia will be postponing this week’s TV broadcast of the iHeartRadio Music Festival,” the network said in a statement. “New broadcast dates will be announced at a later time.”
CBS had an even more difficult day than its network rivals. First, the network had to fire Hayley Geftman-Gold, a vice president and senior counsel in its strategic transactions department, after she posted on Facebook: “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing. I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans are often republican gun toters.”
Geftman-Gold was quickly terminated, with CBS stating: “This individual, who was with us for approximately one year, violated the standards of our company and is no longer an employee of CBS. Her views as expressed on social media are deeply unacceptable to all of us at CBS. Our hearts go out to the victims in Las Vegas and their families.”
Then, CBS had to backtrack on the story that rock star Tom Petty had died, when in fact he’s “clinging to life” at UCLA Santa Monica hospital, according to TMZ. That said, Petty, 66, who suffered major cardiac arrest Sunday night and was found unconscious and not breathing, is not expected to live.
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