We often discuss the “perils of the press” in humorous stories of the unexpected for journalists. However, we are often reminded of the dangers faced by reporters in their daily jobs. Today offered one such tragic example from Moneta, Virginia. Vester Lee Flanagan, who used the name on-air of Bryce Williams, shot and killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. He then posted the filmed event and tweeted about it. It is a bizarre and chilling example of how social media has become intertwined with such crimes in our society. Flanagan later shot himself in a confrontation with police.
Flanagan (shown left) said that Parker made “racist comments” and that he had filed a complaint was filed against her through the equal employment opportunity commission. Ward had worked with Flanagan and he said that Ward had complained about having to work with him. He then shared his attack on Twitter. Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, died at the scene while the woman being interviewed was rushed to Roanoke Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery.
Ward was engaged to Melissa Ott, a news producer who was working on the show and watched from the control room as the shooting happened. This was her last day on the job because she was about to start a new job in Charlotte, North Carolina and Ward planned to move with her. The office-mates had just thrown a party that morning for her.
These cases often raise civil liability for the employer. While the criminal case is apparently closed given the statements and film of the deceased, families can sometimes sue over the failure of an employer to warn them or take some action. In this case, it appears that Flanagan is no longer working for the station so that insulates the studio to some extent. There can be questions however is anyone had reason to know of a violent predisposition or targeting of these victims. There is no indication of such forewarning or prior indications of violence at this time. This type of delayed and unhinged response is very difficult for anyone to foresee and an employer cannot monitor former employees for years.
I can only imagine the grief of these families and survivors when faced with such a senseless act. The chilling combination of social media deepens the unfathomable aspects of this double murder.
The video is graphic and available here
Didn’t post the University of Cincinnati Cop murdering Samuel DuBose, but this one is big news. Getting out of suburbia and the privileged zone can help one’s ethics tremendously. Or have some capacity for literature and read some Shelley. Or drop the racism entrenched in your empire that you so quickly espouse.
Good lord. There is no end to conspiracy theories. They dream up this stuff while ignoring the REAL issues this country faces? What a waste of time.
Guns, Drugs, & Booze: The Bipartisan Support For Prohibition
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-29/guns-drugs-booze-bipartisan-support-prohibition
Alison Parker Shooting Hoax And Barack Obama’s Fake Assassination
As The Collapse Approaches The US Government Pushes The Gun Control Agenda – Episode 751b
I forgot to mention that every job application requires your Social Security Number. You can ‘run’ someone’s SSN and uncover every place of employment from that individual. I am sure that the GM of the station did this. If not, then he should step down, and a lawsuit and/or settlement is imminent.
However, the parents of Mr. Ward and Ms. Parker apparently are making their ends meet, so to speak, by being on or in every news station or paper, advocating stricter gun control.
Darren,
Nick is right. Stop making sense on this blog. You are giving me a headache.
RWL – I do not give out my SS number on my job application. If they actually hire me I am happy to give to them.
Paul,
An employer can also pull all of employment history from your date of birth, matching it with your personal info (such as current and previous addresses, employment info that you listed on your application, etc) that you gave them during the application process. However, most companies can pull your SSN from your previous employers (for verification purposes and credit checks).
Very few companies will not allow you to get to the next phase of the application and hiring process without your SSN.
RWL – I have it down pat. I tell them that when I got my SS number I made an agreement with the US government, only my bank and my employer gets my SS number. If they put a contract in my hand then we can go forward. My former employers are not allowed to give out my SS number, and if I found they did, I would sue them.
Karen S,
Nice try. However, every job application requires you to fill out, at least, the last 5-10 years of your employment history. Then, you are interviewed and you discuss your previous work history. The GM of the news station seemed (at least to me) to be intelligent and quite competent to look over Mr. Flannigan’s job application and interview (and for a position of a news reporter, I am sure he had more than one interview with more members of the news station) to determine that this individual would definitely not be a good fit for our organization. Just based on his employment history, via his job application, alone is enough for any competent GM to pass over his application.
If Mr. Flannigan was being interviewed for cook or cashier at Walmart or McDonald’s, then I might agree with you (even at those two companies, you are required to fill a job application, requiring you to list your last 3-5 places of employmemt, and be interviewed).
When I use to work in Missouri’s Department of Probation and Parole, we had a list of companies that hired individuals with ‘criminal’ backgrounds (a news station or news reporter position was not one of them). These companies worked with our department to employ these individuals. These individuals were still required to fill out a job application and be interviewed for the position. Sometimes the applicant and the individual would not be a good fit, based upon the individual’s employment and educational background, and the interview. However, there were always those companies who would take just about anyone-aka UPS-regardless of their background and how he/she conducted themselves in the interview.
I am waiting for the news station to announce that the GM of the news station is stepping down and/or a civil lawsuit has been filed against the GM (for his gross neglecence/mistake) and parent company of the news station.
Here’s someone who landed a $400,000 a year job, yet failed E-verify. http://obamafailedeverify.blogspot.com/ Investigate this with an open mind. What do you think? If this can happen then isn’t it possible that what the news media reports is false until proven true? Or that they lie by omission?
Are you aware that the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) allows the U.S. Government to use the media in whatever ways it wants to shape pubic opinion? Is it possible that the media is disseminating dis-information in order to direct policies that support gun control, censorship, militarized police, illegal searches and seizures, etc.? Already the NDAA is being used to imprison American citizens without any charges filed and without a trial. If they can do this ‘legally’ shouldn’t we question the veracity of this latest ‘shooting’? Why do ALL of the victim’s loved ones, friends, family display no real grief? How are they ALL conducting interviews sometimes hours after the fact without experiences any of the stages of grief? Would you be able to do this? Would you want to?
Forgive my insistence, but I care deeply about what has happened to the America I was born into and am trying to wake people up to this encroaching reality and am meeting so much resistance and hostility..
Well, Well, Well! It turns out this deceased reporter’s father is a Dem politician. Today he’s off of guns and blasting the 2 US Senators from his state for not calling him. He whined that the Governor called him but the 2 Senators to date had not. I obviously had this guy nailed. It’s all about him. I had enormous empathy for the reporter, now I have even more. She had a narcissistic a-hole politician father to deal w/ her entire life. And, I also have great empathy for the mother as well.
Hildegard, I saw the video and read the posting. It doesn’t make sense.
With that being said, I am concerned about the loss of civil liberties in my country.
Thomas Jefferson said: A Nation of Sheep will have a Government of Wolves.
You might like a recent book- “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State” by John Whitehead. .
Thanks for your reply and yes indeed there is a police state emerging very quickly. That’s a ‘nice’ way of saying fascism is emerging, tyranny is emerging, oppression is emerging. I checked out the book and it looks like a good read for those who are just waking up to this nightmare. Perhaps the video doesn’t make sense because you haven’t made the connection between these media productions and the emerging police state. Instead of a wake up call, 1984 is being used as a training manual and too many are just being lead around by the nose. It’s extremely frustrating to be aware of this and be unable to get through to people.
Forget
So relegating a class of citizens to 3/5ths a human being isn’t incompetence in action yet seeking equal treatment under the law, is?
Hilde
Don’t you know…
… I put the naughty in your illuminati.
http://armageddonconspiracy.co.uk/
A DIRECT RESULT OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.
Affirmative action is not only unconstitutional bias, it is misleading and destructive.
Freedom and Self-Reliance allow all people to “pursue happiness” and realize their actual natural potential.
This incompetent psycho was hired by various stations to fill a quota.
The affirmative action quota denied more competent American reporters the job.
Affirmative action causes incompetent workers to erroneously believe they have value.
Affirmative action causes standards to be lowered to accommodate the incompetent.
Nick:
It is very true that the shooter’s background is only relevant to the media when he’s white, racist, and/or religious.
They are focusing on the gun here as if a really nice man bent down, picked it up, and the thing just went off because of a faulty safety. He could have killed these people with his car or an ax.
You don’t punish law abiding people for the actions of a criminal. I just don’t understand the laser focus on the tool used, and not the root cause. What red flags were raised that we can learn from to try to prevent murder?
I notice the thread has also discussed illegal aliens.
Here is what I find notable. Many political analysts now agree that any presidential candidate needs to win at least 50% of the Latino vote in order to win, and that any candidate against illegal aliens will lose that vote.
How interesting that our nation has now become helpless to enforce our own laws, because doing so could cost you the presidency. So, in order to become president, you have to pledge to allow people to break the law, and refuse to enforce the law when you take office. (Such as when the WH sued AZ when they tried to follow federal immigration law and turn over law breakers to ICE.) We have allowed so many people to break immigration law that this group now shapes our presidential race.
Max:
“Why not make mental instability while in possession of a firearm, a crime also?” So mental illness is now a crime? By definition, many mental illnesses render the sufferer unable to make rational decisions. The violent mentally ill can kill people with a gun, hammer, poison, scissors, a chopstick, knitting needles, hair pin, an icicle, a car, a rope, a pillow . . . don’t you ever read murder mysteries? 🙂 We need to fix the mental illness system so that we can take people off the street who are a danger to themselves or others. We’ve all read stories about red flag after red flag, but the current system renders us helpless to commit anyone long term against their will, or medicate them, until they actually hurt someone.
We already ban firearms for the mentally ill. That’s what the background check is supposed to do. However, most states do not report. The last I checked, around 25 states had only submitted 100 or less mental illness disqualifications to the instant database.
That said, I haven’t yet read anything about the mental state of this shooter, so I don’t know if this applies to this particular case.