Runaway Train by S.W. Capps

Author:S.W. Capps
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: media bias, media, media industry, news reporters, tv reporter, cub reporter
Publisher: D X Varos, Ltd

Chapter 10

May 1988

(NEWSWIRE): SOVIET UNION BEGINS WITHDRAWING TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN ... POLLS SHOW DUKAKIS AHEAD OF BUSH IN RACE FOR WHITE HOUSE ... SURGEON GENERAL SAYS TOBACCO PRODUCTS ARE ‘ADDICTIVE’

By six in the morning, Will Rogers was a smoldering mess. Three fire units worked till dawn to save the historic structure, but the relentless blaze won out. Channel 7 arrived at 6:30. Channel 2 was still missing. KEGT, meanwhile, captured a glut of breathtaking footage, from firemen risking their lives to flames illuminating the Clarion sky.

It was another huge victory for Channel 8.

“Can you tell us what this school meant to you?” Stacy asked.

Mildred Divine took a shaky breath. “I started teaching here in ’48…” She glanced at the people on hand—students, parents, teachers—all heartbroken. “…it’s been my home for decades. And these people… they’re my family.” Her lip began to quiver, Julius zooming. “Everything I’d kept…the notes, the gifts from students…forty years of memories were in that classroom…” Unable to continue, she turned away, melting back into the crowd.

Stacy hated asking questions like that. They were designed to elicit emotion, from interviewees at their most vulnerable. The technique was used by every journalist in the business. But was it right? He couldn’t help feeling he was invading his subjects’ privacy somehow, exposing them unfairly for his own personal gain.

“We’ve got enough, Jul.” He unhooked the mic. They’d talked to three teachers, six parents, and the fire chief, all while Brannuck worked feverishly to establish a signal.

“Five minutes!” he hollered from the truck. As they moved their gear, the sound of screeching tires stopped them.

Channel 2’s news van had arrived, its occupants furious.

“Just what kinda shit are you trying to pull?” The burly camera op leaped from the vehicle, veins bulging. “We been on a wild damn goose chase for hours, looking for a ‘meth lab bust’. I wonder who left that tip on the hotline!”

“What are you talkin’ ’bout, dude?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” His eyes moved from Julius to Stacy. “We see what you’re doing, with your fancy live truck and your little office. You’re trying to come up here and fuck us! Well, dropping a bogus lead mighta worked once, but it’ll never work again!”

Stacy had heard enough. “If you think for one—”

“Excuse me, gentlemen.” The bickering journalists turned. Clarion Fire Chief Gary Schnea stared from beneath a blackened helmet. “I thought you’d like to know. We just discovered a body.”

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