Two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon at about 12:50 p.m. It broke on Twitter moments later.
The same report that two explosions rocked the finish line flowed on Twitter, tweeted and retweeted by various news agencies. For a few minutes, all anyone knew was that the explosion happened.
A few minutes later, reporters started to describe the scene. The Boston Globe’s website crashed, and the paper moved its updates to Twitter.
@BostonGlobe tweeted, “At two spots on Boylston Street, scores of people fell and were injured. Some could be seen to have lost limbs; others were unconscious.”
One interesting thing about Twitter is that there is no filter. As grisly as this tweet was, there were worse. Some of the photos were awful. I checked out a live helicopter feed from Bloomberg News, and the blood was visible from the air. I avoided any photos that had warnings. These things would never have made the newspaper.
As the tweets about how many people were injured and photos of the aftermath appeared on my screen, the everyday tweets seemed comically out of place.
@Grantland33 “Daft Punk had a big weekend — listen to a snippet of their new song, by @rembert es.pn/11i156o.”
I realize these tweets were not meant to be disrespectful. The contrast still made me giggle, though.
Twitter represents the mind of the internet. The last time I saw Twitter light up was Thursday after Carlos Quentin of the San Diego Padres charged Los Angeles pitcher Zack Greinke — causing a dugout-clearing brawl. There was some hubbub about this still as the two teams are playing again tonight. This is no longer the case.
@BattingStanceG “Quentin v Greinke seemed really important this morning.”
I met one of my worst fears today: talking to witnesses of a horrible crime. Whenever I see reporters interviewing people at the scene of something like this, I cringe. We found four U students who ran in the marathon. I called one student to ask about what he saw. I felt bad even contacting him. I did not want to bother anyone who had been through that experience.
Yes, I cover crime at the U, but writing about a student found passed out in a laundry basket in the dorms or a student who thought it would be funny for his friends to stick him in a locker until they could not get it open again is a lot different than a bombing. I am afraid one day I will hear a serious crime on the scanner and have to go to a bloody crime scene.
We were talking today in the newsroom about if we would run up to campus if something like this happened at the Salt Lake City Marathon. I had to think about it. I know I should, but I do not know if I could, handle being at the scene. I do not know if I could turn off my emotions and ask people what they saw and to describe the scene.
There are times as a reporter when you cannot say what you feel really needs to be said. You have to report the facts and leave your feelings out.
I am sure most reporters on the scene shared the thoughts of this Boston Globe Sports Reporter:
@GlobeChadFinn “Colleague @stevesilva was a few dozen feet away from the first explosion, caught it on video. Just saw it, makes me want to cry.”