From watching Lester Holt’s framing of NBC’s report on the mass shooting at a Prague college campus, you’d be forgiven for thinking the shooting happened in the United States, given his unwarranted insertion of domestic narrative points into the story.
Watch as Holt puts domestic political narrative into a report about something that happened across the pond:
LESTER HOLT: We start overseas tonight, and a scourge that seems to know no boundaries. A mass shooting at a college campus that this time has taken at least 14 lives, in a country where gun crimes are said to be relatively low.
The “scourge” is, of course, school shootings. “This time” suggests that there were prior times. Is Prague known for a spike in school shootings? Is this a common thing? Again, the language is meant to trigger a domestic tie-in.
But then Holt contradicts himself further down the very same sentence: “in a country where gun crimes are said to be relatively low.” If gun crimes are very low then there wouldn’t be a “this time” or “last time”, now wouldn’t it? Reasonable persons would not be wrong to ask themselves what culturally illiterate college freshman writes this dreck copy.
Once Holt hands off to Keir Simmons, the story goes into such rare items as facts and events. Thankfully, Mr. Simmons is not as compelled to report Prague as if it were a U.S. domestic school shooting.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Thursday, December 21st, 2023:
LESTER HOLT: Good evening, and welcome, everyone. We start overseas tonight, and a scourge that seems to know no boundaries. A mass shooting at a college campus that this time has taken at least 14 lives, in a country where gun crimes are said to be relatively low. Officials in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, say a 24-year-old student opened fire at Charles University. In addition to the dead, police say around two dozen people were injured. Students hurried to take shelter, while others made daring escapes. It is the Czech Republic's worst mass shooting. And police believe the gunman took his own life. In addition, the shooter's father was found dead. Keir Simmons is there for us tonight with late details.
KEIR SIMMONS: Tonight, panic in Prague as a gunman opens fire on a college campus, sending people running for cover. Images of terrified students crouching high up on a ledge of a building, witnesses describing the horror.
JAKOB WEIZMAN: In the middle of the exam, we started hearing gunshots and screams. Eventually, we were able to lock the door and make a barricade. While we were walking out, all I could see like, you know, on the floor was just covered in blood.
SIMMONS: The gunman opening fire at the arts faculty of Charles University, in the city's old town where police say he killed 14 people in the Czech Republic's worst mass shooting. SWAT teams rushing to the scene. Prague historic old town, usually packed with holiday tourists, locked down as ambulances and police vehicles pour in. The father of one student says he texted his daughter, telling her to get on the floor and stay away from windows. Tonight police say the suspect is dead, that he likely killed himself after the massacre, but that there was a fire fight with responding officers and that they found the body of his father earlier. The white house weighing in late today.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Federal authorities are in touch with Czech authorities as they investigate this incident. And we stand ready to provide additional support as needed.
HOLT: Keir, what are we learning about the investigation so far?
SIMMONS: Lester- all night, we have been watching forensic teams on the balcony of the school there where you saw those students. The police say so far there is no sign of accomplices or a terror motive. Lester, tonight Prague, normally bustling for Christmas, is silenced. Lester?
HOLT: All right, Keir Simmons, thank you.
