By: Mikey Domagala and Victoria Onorato
Staff Writers
On Tuesday, Oct. 4, seven members of The Pioneer attended the Megyn Kelly Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
Freshman Mikey Domagala, senior Victoria Onorato, junior Andrew Servedio, junior Gillian Pietrowski, sophomore Luis Viloria, junior Angelique D’Alessandro, and junior Griffin Albrecht were members of the audience as Kelly and her guests discussed the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, where 59 concertgoers were murdered and over 500 were injured.
Veteran journalist Tom Brokaw, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman, psychiatrist Sue Varma, and former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras spoke about the shooting from various angles, including preaching awareness, supposed defects of the NRA, and advice to victims and their families. Varma urged courage, saying that while “fear is expected” in the wake of horrific events, so is hope.
Bauman, who lost both of his legs during the Boston Marathon in 2013 and now relies on prosthetics, gave hope to victims through his own experience. “To the victims waking up in a hospital right now wondering how life will ever be the same… I know your pain,” he said. “The most important advice I can give is to remember that healing your mind is just as important as healing your physical, visible injuries. It took me too many years and dark moments to realize that and it is so, so important. You will walk again. You will laugh again. You will dance again. You will live again.”
The first half of the show was coverage of the tragic event in Las Vegas. Kelly then brought on two guests to revive the gloomy audience with uplifting and joyful stories. The first guest was Charity Tillemann-Dick, an opera singer who had a rare lung disease that could have ended her life if she sang another note. Two double lung transplants and many songs later, Tillemann-Dick performed on the Megyn Kelly Show. Comedian and actor Russell Brand was the next guest, promoting his new book “Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions.” Brand admitted he was a “terrible drug addict” and advised an audience member in early recovery to reach out to other people like herself for help. He also hilariously spoke about his baby daughter Mabel and shared a few stories about her.
After the show concluded, it was open mic for the audience and senior broadcasting major, journalism minor Victoria Onorato complemented Kelly on the structure of her new show. Kelly was extremely respectful to her audience throughout the entire show, both on or off camera.
“It was an unbelievable experience, one that I am so grateful for,” said junior Angelique D’Alessandro. “I was able to view how production on a television set works and see Megyn Kelly in person. She is an inspirational woman and I am so happy to have been a part of the taping of her show, especially in the aftermath of the terrible events in Las Vegas. Megyn truly created an environment where people felt comfortable discussing the losses in Las Vegas and how to combat gun violence in the future,” she said.
The entire day was an exciting and beneficial experience for LIU Post’s student journalists.
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