Mt. Carmel was torched thirty years ago.

Whoever the culprit was is anyone’s guess – and it’s the most famous conspiracy left in the ashes of that compound. Whether it was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms or the religious group of the Davidians who set the building ablaze, it still finished off the 51-day stand-off that captivated the citizens of Waco, Texas, in early 1993.

From February 28, 1993, to April 19, 1993, a media circus enveloped the outskirts of a property housing government officials, ATF agents, and a building full of religious cultists. When the siege on the compound was halted on April 19, the journalists, videographers, and photographers stood in horror on the outskirts as they watched 76 people perish in the flames that rose over the fence line.

Prior to the finale of the siege, the media had been consumed in chaos. Those 51 days were full of lies made by the U.S. Government, rumors being spilled, disinformation being spread, and broadcast of the harrowing images of the siege. The media groups assigned to report on this national event were at the forefront of this nightmare.

Articles arose throughout the siege parroting the government’s statements that the children within the compound were being safely delivered to a housing facility and would be reunited with their families or that Koresh, during the entire siege, was lying about everything he was saying and that the citizens of the compound were within its walls beating and sexually abusing children during the stand-off.

In the years to come, and through many investigations, it’s been discovered that neither of those statements were genuine; they were told to the press during daily press conferences in an attempt to demonize those trapped within the compound.

It’s straightforward to blame the media over the treatment of the Davidians in the tabloids or the sensationalism of the disturbing events as they transgressed – but it’s also easy to forget that, in combination with what they were being told and the stress they were put under, that the resulting reports were going to be a mangled mess, too. Waco was traumatizing to everyone.

Establishing the Facts

Since the events in Waco were full of miscommunication, it’s essential to establish a few core ideas before even delving into the press’ role in the siege. In the following list are facts released after several investigations were made into the ATF’s role in the siege, which David Koresh and the Davidians were, and the circumstances that led to the stand-off.

 The Branch Davidians are a Christian religious group under the Seventh Day Adventist Church that focuses on the Second Coming of Christ. They’re a spin-off of the original group, the Davidians, and was led by the Roden family in Waco, Texas.

 In 1981, a man named Vernon Howell entered the compound and amassed followers with his style of biblical teaching.

 Howell changed his name in 1987 to David Koresh and became the official messiah for the group.

 Over the course of time from 1987 to 1993, Koresh and close friends within the Davidians were dealing in weapons and armory. They would sell at local gun shows and customize artillery to be sold legally. (This fact would be noted on the first day of hearings regarding the April 19 event, where journalist Dick Reavis spoke to Congress about the legality of arms dealing, which is shown below.) (https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5095563/user-clip-reavis-quote)

 The ATF caught wind of these endeavors and became suspicious of the arms dealing taking place at the Branch Davidian compound.

 Before the events of Waco, the public regarded what little they knew of the Davidians as “religious nutjobs”; this influenced the ATF to investigate further, as they did not want any possible terrorist actions to come out of the group.

 On February 28, the ATF raided the Davidian compound to detain David Koresh under a search warrant. However, the raid would erupt into chaos as shots were fired, and four agents were killed.

 This launched a 51-day siege between the two armed groups, where the ATF would utilize psychological warfare on the Davidians to coax them out, and a video was sent to the government by Koresh showcasing his child brides. (Koresh is a known pedophile; he married and impregnated girls as young as 13 years old while he was over thirty.)

 Additionally, the negotiation efforts were notoriously tricky, as Koresh told the government he’d leave the compound if they followed his requests. However, after numerous instances of the federal officers obeying Koresh, he would still refuse to leave.

 In the final days of the siege, Koresh made a deal with a negotiator that if he were able to write and publish his Seven Seals, he would willingly leave the compound with his family. At this point in the siege, Davidians were still in the compound, as they remained with Koresh in support.

 Overcome by months of an irritating and deadly fight, the newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno gave the go-ahead to launch a full tear gas assault on the compound.

 On the morning of February 28, the ATF shot multiple tear gas rounds into the compound. When Davidians weren’t exiting the compound in the way they hoped, they drove M1 Abrams tanks into the walls of the main building while dispensing the gas.

 The most heavily contested argument of the entire siege is the idea of who set the building ablaze. The official reports designate that the Davidians sparked the flammable gas alight accidentally while lighting Molotov cocktails to throw at agents.

 The other end is known to believe the ATF to be responsible – even going as far as to state that. They had attached flamethrowers to the end of the tank’s dispensers to “torch” them out.

 After this spectacle, several Davidians were arrested and charged with resisting arrest and conspiracy to murder, along with minor child abuse allegations.

 However, in combination with a previous event where the ATF raided private property, Ruby Ridge, and the events of the Waco siege, terrorist Timothy McVeigh became angry with the government. He proceeded to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in what would become the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995.

 After this event, the public became suspicious of the treatment of the Davidians by the ATF at Waco and demanded a reinvestigation into the events that transpired in 1993.

 Attorney General Reno, along with former U.S. Senator John C. Danforth, created the “Final report to the Deputy Attorney General concerning the 1993 confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex, Waco, Texas.” In this year-long investigation, hundreds of witnesses were interviewed, documents were reviewed, and thousands of pounds of physical evidence were examined.

 In 2000, Special Counsel Danforth concluded that the allegations against the ATF were meritless. Despite the multitude of facts just presented, they are merely a skeleton compared to the whole body of the Waco siege. However, one thing that remains omitted entirely is the press.

Despite all of these facts, of all the Davidian conflict and ATF misdeeds, the most considerable blame for Waco’s circus was the press. They received the most blame – and continue to be blamed to this day – but it is

Is that a fair assessment?

The Press and Waco: A History

Throughout the siege, the press remained a silent messenger, with varying messages shouted at them. Ironically, this became one of the most significant elements of the blockade, as who else would record, photograph  and report on what is happening at the compound?

Before the events of the raid, journalists in Waco, Texas, would interview Koresh and various Davidians through different news segments. However, the biggest tabloid was the “Sinful Messiah” series, written by Mark England and Darlene McCormick of the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Created as an expose, the pair of journalists would discover the pedophilia being conducted behind thescenes at the Waco compound by the titular Sinful Messiah himself – David Koresh. This seven-part series began right before the raid in February and continued past the ending of the siege in April.

The influence of “Sinful Messiah” and various other articles relating to Koresh and the Davidians painted the group in a bad light – however, it is essential to realize that despite their remaining as followers of Koresh, not all of the Davidians were comfortable or complicit in the abuse.

These articles became an amalgamation of the public reception of the Davidians so intently that when the siege began, the media was already lining up outside of the compound, along with the public.

The Press and Waco: During the Siege

During the 51 days, all three siege parties became increasingly antsy and overtaxed. The ATF and the federal government were trying to keep things under control (and keep the press from finding things out); the Davidians were trying to defend their territory, remain safe, and communicate with the ATF and the press; and the press were trying to stay afloat.

At some point during the siege, a white banner labeled, “GOD HELP US WE WANT THE PRESS,” was hung on a window facing the outside world. The press would respond in their way .

In an article written by Jeremy Schwartz of the Austin American-Statesman, members of the early 1990’s The Waco Tribune-Herald team recounted their harrowing memories regarding the first day of the siege. Tommy Witherspoon was a reporter for the Waco Tribune-Herald and found himself splayed flat in a ditch, trying to avoid gunfire from the ATF-Davidian gunbattle going on above him. This went on for almost three hours.

They would duck behind cars and move slowly to the ground. Witherspoon recounts specifically that a bullet whizzed by his ear and hit the car behind him. He had been right where the bullet hit just moments before.

Journalists were disturbed by the events of that day. Witherspoon even recalls a supervisor sobbing in the newsroom, but remaining stoic in the idea that someone has to report it. The man who broke the story of Koresh’s misdeeds, Mark England, felt the magnitude of the Waco siege – he felt to blame. It was a significant tabloid when the “Sinful Messiah” series was released one day before the raid. When the raid happened the next day, England felt as if he was the reason that the ATF agents pushed their dates up and were killed.

He felt responsible for the media backlash against the Davidians, not just Koresh. His former editor recounted, “he felt the blackness of it more than the rest of us.” Still, he continued to release the following six parts of the series throughout the siege.

A KWTX cameraman, Jim Peeler, asked a mailman for directions to Mt. Carmel Center. When asked why, Peeler responded that a major law enforcement operation was underway due to the tips given to him days prior. The mailman sped off without much of a response, and Peeler didn’t know that he was speaking to David Jones, a member of the Branch Davidians. Jones returned to the compound before the raid began and informed Koresh that the ATF was coming.

Federal agents arrived that day hanging on armored vehicles, bringing tanks and artillery with them. When they approached Koresh, the Davidians inside had already begun preparations against the ATF – which caused the ensuing gunfight.

The media was blamed for ruining the raid’s element of surprise – but let’s not forget the fact that police cars, military vehicles, ATF trucks, ambulances, and firetrucks were lined up and ready to go right outside of the compound and had been for hours. In a 2007 Huffington Post article, journalist James Moore wrote, “Ambulance drivers, local police and fire departments and rescue teams had all been placed on twenty-four-hour calls. If the Branch Davidians did not know the BATF was coming, they were the only souls in a five-county region who did not.” Blame is even further placed on the press for the disinformation that was spread during the siege, but it’s important to note that it was discovered in the Congress hearing that the ATF and government willingly lied and omitted essential facts from the media.

During the siege, journalists were essentially corralled into a pen and told only what the ATF wanted them to hear. Coming back to journalist Dick Reavis, he notes, “When your information only comes from one side, you’re always going to get it wrong.” It wasn’t until after the dust settled on Waco, Texas, that the media felt the shame.

The Media and Waco: The Aftermath

Peeler regarded himself as a ghost, like being seen but not being there, after the events of the siege.

Despite the lies and gunfire that occurred during the 51-day stand-off, the media was the most considerable blame for the sensationalism of the event. And to play Devil’s Advocate – they’re partly right in that shame. It was discovered in a Treasury report that numerous journalists were timid when it came to pressing for proper information from ATF agents or that there were no meaningful protests against the threat of FOIA. When there seems to be a severe threat to the freedom of information, it’s essential to battle it, but it’s simultaneously tricky when the person you want to argue with is in an ongoing firefight.

It’s hard to blame them for being timid.

When the flames of the Mt. Carmel compound began to peak over the horizon and into the view of the media pod, the circus that once was there vanished. It was stunned silence as dozens of reporters watched the building go up in flames.

In an interview with Ally Kadlubar of KWTX, Witherspoon remembers that day vividly as he sat in the newsroom, wondering, “When are all the people coming out?” “Surely they would come out of a big fire, like roaring fire, and then it turns out that that was David. Koresh’s self-fulfilling prophecy that they would die at the hands of the government.”

This shock and disturbing realization traumatized some of the reporters who were there during those fateful days. It’s easy to forget that amidst all of the chaos present between all three parties at the compound, nearly a hundred people lost their lives during those 51 days, and even more have been scared by the event – including the press. However, it’s known that journalism is challenging work. There will be complex stories where disturbing things must be seen and lived through. Witherspoon believes in this sentiment and states with Schwartz that in journalism, no matter how distressing, you must push forward and do your job – to act as a servant for the public. “You try to distance yourself, and I guess that’s what I’ve done,“ he said. “You move on to the next story. You can’t let it get to you, or you can’t do your job.”