Tuesday morning’s Kerr County, Texas press conference on last week’s apocalyptic floods flew off the rails because of the showboating antics of ABC and CNN’s reporters on scene — ABC with Matt Gutman and CNN with both Shimon Prokupecz and Isabelle Rosales — shouting at local officials (and, at one point, each other) and demanding heads roll for the death toll that crossed north of 100 people.

Rosales started things off, twice asking officials to “outline what specific discussions and actions were taken between the time the first flood emergency came in at 1:14 a.m. and then when the river first started flooding its banks hours later.”

Kerr County, Texas Sheriff Larry Leitha started to answer but this was all he got out before Prokupecz jumped in: “What I can tell you when I was first notified it was around the 4 to 5 area. One of my sergeants was in dispatch when the first calls started coming in the actual 911 calls come in.”

Prokupecz scoffed, stating in an exasperated sense: “That was at, like, four in the morning?”

Leitha continued:

It was between 4 or 5 when — when I got notified, okay? But prior to that in that 3 to 4 area my understanding is and we’re in the process of trying to put a timeline. You know, that’s going to take a little bit of time. As I’ve told you several times ,that is not my priority at this time. There’s three priorities that’s locating, locating the people out there, identifying and notify the next of kin. That — that is what I’m taking is my job as sheriff here to do, okay?

Channeling Jim Acosta, Gutman jumped in: “With all due respect, sir, I think that the community here is asking these questions. What happened? When did it happen? Was it emergency manager awake at the time? Did they push the button to issue an emergency alert?”

Anytime a reporter blurts “with all due respect” out of nowhere, it’s a sign it is not, in fact, respectful or just asking question.

Leitha scoffed back, seeming to recall Gutman at past press conferences: “Sir, it’s not that easy when you — and you just push a button, okay? There’s a lot more to that. And we’ve told you several times.”

It was at this point that both Gutman and Prokupecz were yelling at Leitha. Hilariously, Gutman even paused his hectoring at Leitha to tell Prokupecz to shut up (click “expand”):

GUTMAN: So, did it happen, sir?

LEITHA: I can’t tell you at this time, okay? 

GUTMAN: You can’t tell me if the emergency manager —

PROKUPECZ: Who is —

GUTMAN: — of the county actually —

PROKUPECZ: — sir, sir —

GUTMAN: — issued an emergency alert? Okay.

PROKUPECZ: — sheriff, who is — 

GUTMAN: Shimon, just give me a second and let him answer the question.

PROKUPECZ: — who is the emergency operations center? Who runs —

GUTMAN: Let him answer the question.

PROKUPECZ: — the emergency operations center?

LEITHA [TO GUTMAN]: I’ll come back to you. I ain’t going nowhere.

GUTMAN: I appreciate it.

PROKUPECZ: Who runs the emergency operations center?

LEITHA: We — we have a communication center — a dispatch, okay? We have a communication center. That’s where the calls that actually go to the police department. Then they’re forwarded to us.

Prokupecz won out and continued lecturing Leitha:

[L]eading up to this, in monitoring the weather, there is, in any large city, in any state, there’s an office of emergency management that is monitoring the weather, that is watching and listening and getting briefings. Who was getting those briefings in this city, in this county? Who was receiving that information? And who would have ultimately made the decision to evacuate hearing what was coming in from the Weather Service and other [INAUDIBLE].

Leitha started to reply that “I’m going to tell you this,” but Prokupecz interrupted: “You’re not in emergency management though, right? The sheriff’s not EOC. Who is EOC?”

The sheriff gave up, letting Texas Game Warden Lt. Colonel Dan Baker fight back. Once Baker got out that “we understand you have many questions,” Prokupecz tore into Baker: “Right. No, I understand, but you’re going to — you’re not going to go answer the question because that’s up to the city manager and the mayor to answer those questions.”

Instead of yelling at each other, Gutman and Prokupecz teamed up to blast local officials for “ducking” their questions while Baker insisted their focus “is...on bringing people home” and the questions for these national hacks will be answered later (click “expand”):

GUTMAN: It’s the county emergency management. 

BAKER: We understand —

GUTMAN: That’s what — that’s what —

BAKER: — you have many questions.

PROKUPECZ: Where is the judge? The judge is not — is not here.

BAKER: We understand that. But right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home.

GUTMAN: We — we understand that too.

BAKER: That’s our focus. 

PROKUPECZ: There are a number of questions leading up to —

GUTMAN: [INAUDIBLE]

PROKUPECZ: — this.

BAKER: All those questions will be answered but the priority right now — 

GUTMAN: It seems like you’re ducking.

BAKER: — is bringing people home.

Gutman then sounded like their colleagues a few weeks ago when they insisted they’re gleefully breathless reporting claiming the U.S. strikes in Iran were a failure: “We totally understand that and we value the incredible work that is being done by those first responders. We’re seeing them out there muddy and sweaty and grinding it out day after day, but your community is asking these questions.”

Oh, there it is. Cloaking yourself in just asking questions because the “community” wants them asked. What a cop-out.

There was one last team-up by Gutman and Prokupecz (click “expand”):

BAKER: And we will have —

GUTMAN: Was the emergency manager —

BAKER: — we will get answers. 

GUTMAN: — in the county —

BAKER: Right now —

GUTMAN: — awake at the time —

BAKER: — all of our resources are focused —

PROKUPECZ: Chief Baker, who is — you should be able to answer —

    BAKER: — to recovery.

    PROKUPECZ: — who is — who was in charge of the emergency operations center at the time that was getting any briefings, if any?

Thankfully, another report in the audience — presumably a more local one versus these fly in, fly out national reporters who won’t bear the brunt of recovery — asked an actual question:

I think I’ll focus on what local people can be looking for. We’re looking at some erosion in roads and safety and they’re traveling. What can we tell people to make sure right now and what they can do in they daily life [sic]? Should they worry about traveling on roads? Do we know anything about that infrastructure?

Without fail, national reporters — huge crews, large salaries, and more — will always make it about themselves as though they’re stars of the show, not the middle-class Americans who will still be cleaning up trees and mud once these big whigs leave.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from July 8, click here.