Media vow to remember Newtown tragedy in respectful manner

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) - The nation's news media are sure to cover the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School extensively on Saturday.

But for the most part, these news organizations say they will acquiesce to the requests of local community members and not report from Newtown, Connecticut, the town where Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at the now-demolished school on December 14, 2012. The massacre was the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

CNN said in a statement that while it "plans to cover the one-year anniversary across our networks and platforms, we are respecting the wishes of the families, and we are not reporting from Newtown on Saturday."

Similarly, an NBC spokeswoman said in an e-mail that "NBC News is respecting the town's wishes and our broadcasts have no plans to be in Newtown for the anniversary." Other television networks issued almost identical statements when contacted.

Such decisions are exceptionally rare for news organizations and underline the tension between the necessity of covering tragedy and respecting the people who are being covered - in this case, parents with dead children and their neighbors.

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