RITA COSBY, Fox News National Correspondent:
Well, can I tell that you I think we have been extremely responsible and I can tell you firsthand because of I know of at least maybe seven or eight shootings where we got details and we said wait until we know specifically that this looks like there are some signs pointing in the direction, until investigators are going down.
In fact, I was the one who got the first report last Saturday night about that shooting in Ashland, Virginia, and until I knew that Nancy Demme, who is the captain, of course, of the police department, was heading down there — that clearly was a signal — until we knew the roads were being blocked off — then we went to air with it, and it was only until then.
I do think there has been some hysteria. I think it's a very frightening story, but I will also tell you that there a lot of decisions made behind the scenes, and even though we're filling a lot of time, the public is very interested in this but there is a lot of editorial processes behind the scenes that you're not aware about.
And I can also tell you that it's interesting we have a lot of discussions and I think as this story has been developing we're very careful not to report every shooting, not to report every particular incident and also putting it in context too.
I also care about that community; I lived there for six and a half years. I just moved to up New York recently. So this hits home for me as well. But I think we're very careful about what we report, how we report it, and also putting it in context that this is still very, very random and a very slight incident — scary, very frightening but still saying to people look let's show you the big picture.
And I do think the broadcast networks and I think particularly the 24-hour news because we have a lot of time to fill, we have been doing a very good job of putting it in perspective, trying to understanding the story and understand the context.
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