This morning I spoke with Senator Steve Daines of Montana. We were going to talk about how Montana beef and how after over a 10-year ban, it will now be sold in China.
But everything went crazy 10 minutes before my morning show, Dominick On The Air, went on the air. There was a shooting in Virginia, someone attacked Republican congress members while they were practicing for a baseball game.
I check the Associated Press, then Fox News and CNN. The information is Congressman Steve Scalise has been shot. Others are injured, Senator Rand Paul is on the air saying, “We were sitting ducks.”
Next a congressman, I don’t remember his name, is on the air telling reporters a man who may have been the shooter asked if the baseball players in the park were Republicans.
Could this be politically motivated?
My show starts, I tell my listeners what is happening. Next we go live to the shooting scene. The shooter is dead, no he’s alive, people are trying to give out information, but when news is breaking it is hard to get the facts out.
My listeners were calling, during a commercial break, I take a call: “Dominick, did you hear that CBS reported —– ”
So I am doing my show and I look up at the clock it is almost time for Senator Steve Daines to be on the show. How can I talk about Montana beef when a major news event is happening? Will he even call in for the interview? Will I be putting him on the spot if I ask him about the shooting?
It’s time for the interview, the senator is on the phone. I have no way of asking him before the interview if I can ask him about what’s happening in Virginia.
What if he doesn’t know about the attack?
“Senator Daines. welcome to Dominick On The Air. Do you want to tell us your feelings about the shooting today?”
I wait. Senator Daines answers: “They are… some of them are my friends.”
Senator Daines went on to talk about the shooting, he added more facts. When he talked about the people who were attacked and hurt, I could hear the pain in his voice.
I was going to lose it, this wasn’t just a news story, this was real. Humans were shot, someone may die.
Senator Daines made it human. He didn’t have to do my show, but he did. And my listeners got to hear from a man, not a senator or a politician, but a man who feared his friends might die.
The listeners and I thank Senator Steve Daines for making us see the human factor and not just a news story.
Dominick