Episode 2270: Craig Garnett on May 24, 2022 - Uvalde's Darkest Hour

On May 24, 2022, a 18 year-old walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and shot to death 19 students and 2 teachers. In Uvalde’s Darkest Hour, the owner of the local Uvalde Leader-News, Craig Garnett tries to make sense of these tragic events. Although making sense might be the wrong words to describe either the book or Garnett himself. While this mass murder occurred more than two years ago, the stoical Garnett still appears frozen in a kind of uncomprehending grief in the face of this terrible crime. As he confesses, the writing of the book was intended as a kind of catharsis. But there’s still an intense anger there - especially toward the local police chiefs who allowed the gunman to remain in the classroom for an hour and fourteen minutes. CRAIG GARNETT has owned the Uvalde Leader-News, the local newspaper, since 1989. He moved to Uvalde in 1982 to begin work with the Leader-News, where his weekly editorials and columns have won dozens of awards from the Texas Press Association and South Texas Press Association. Garnett received the 2023 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity, and tenacity in rural journalism for his coverage of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe