COVERING UVALDE

Austin reporter, editor visit Manship School to discuss covering Uvalde

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN & GABBY JIMINEZ

LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, an Austin American-Statesman reporter who had spent weeks covering the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, got a late-night call from a source that was a turning point in the massacre’s coverage.

“Come get the video,” the source told him.

The gut-wrenching, 77-minute security camera footage showed law enforcement officers standing idly by for over an hour while a gunman fired shots in a closed elementary school classroom.

Plohetski and his top editor, Manny Garcia, spoke to students at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication on Monday about the video’s consequences and what it was like to cover one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.

They provided a behind-thescenes account of covering one of the most emotionally wrenching stories in recent memory— and one that was closely followed by people across the country. Their talk was part of a series of events at the Manship

LEGISLATURE

School designed to take a closer view of what reporters do and the value of it.

Plohetski’s coverage of the shooting began after he saw early reports on Twitter on what had felt like an ordinary day in May 2022. Garcia asked him to make some calls.

“I don’t know anything about death toll, but I can tell you this is going to be very bad,” a top official with the Texas Department of Public Safety told him.

He soon learned the death toll was over a dozen.

CAMPUS

LIFE