How I helped a county official go national

One of the first calls I made Thursday at the onset of the Fort Hood tragedy was to a county official I knew had a lot of connections on post. He told me the shooter was wearing a military uniform. I attributed that information to him in the first breaking news story posted on our Web site.

Within minutes of that story posting, the official began receiving calls on his cell phone.

Apparently somebody from CNN saw that story and called the county offices asking for that official. In the past he has told secretaries and others that when people call for him they should give out his cell phone number. So, you can probably guess that somebody from CNN called and in just a short amount of time, the official was on the Wolf Blitzer show via cell phone sharing what little information he had.

Later, he said somebody from Larry King Live called to see if he would do a similar interview. The official declined because he had a prior commitment.

From there he received phone calls from reporters at USA Today, the Dallas Morning News and others.

Maybe next time I'll keep the officials name and title out of the breaking news story. Protecting sources helps save them time, and it can buy a local reporter a little time when he is competing with hundreds of national media professionals who are extremely aggressive when they smell blood.