As I write this I admit to feeling a bit numb about the daily mass shootings here in America. Yep, daily. The most recent as I write this being the massacre in Texas at a shopping mall.  Followed of course by all the “Thoughts and Prayers.” Blah Blah Blah.

Two things I learned early on in my broadcast journalism career do have me thinking about it all. The first came from my news writing mentor Merv Block, one of the 3 writers of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Merv taught me, “News is what’s new.”

Daily mass shootings are certainly not new by any measure. Kind of like the sun rising in the east. So why keep on reporting about them?

But I also remember a speech by the legendary Paul Harvey. He described our jobs as journalists as “Future Shock – Shock Absorbers,” delivered in that remarkable cadence of his.

So I guess reporting about daily mass shootings does help us absorb the shock of it all.

One thing for sure is we as a society have some work to do. Actually doing something about all this certainly would be news. Because it would be new.

Brian Olson

Gainesville, GA