In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the Denver Post reported that Shapiro put a brief note on his Facebook page reading, "So you may have seen Kyle get bit by the dog in the 7 a.m. hour. All we know for sure is that he got her on the lip, and she's being treated for the injury at the hospital. We think she's going to be OK, she was talking when she left." As I noted in our initial post, I was unable to find this item shortly thereafter, but Shapiro insists it was never deleted and remains on the page. Neither I nor a colleague were able to find it a short time ago, but given the irritating aspects of Facebook's new Timeline feature, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
In the meantime, Shapiro characterizes the feedback from his interview with Dyer as "good. I've had tons of e-mails and Facebook posts and tweets and that kind of thing. It's all been pretty positive."Why wasn't Dyer specifically asked if, in retrospect, she felt she'd made a mistake when she put her face inches away from Max, an Argentine Mastiff who'd been rescued from an icy pond the day before?
"I don't know if it was asked in those words, but we did talk about that," Shapiro maintains. "There was a sound bite to the effect that she thought it was an accident. Obviously, she got bit, so she probably got too close, but we didn't dwell on it. And I think she's answered that many times in different interviews since last week."
What about the way the interview was publicized? Some media sources saw the various teaser promos, which didn't provide a direct look at Dyer's face, as exploitative in a way that seemed particularly crass given that she's a member of the station staff. But while Shapiro says that he didn't have anything to do with the spots other than appearing in one of them, he stresses that "they didn't strike me that way."
As for Dyer's current frame of mind, Shapiro says, "She's doing pretty well. She's actually going to New York today; she's going to be on the Today show tomorrow morning, during the seven o'clock hour Denver time. They called her last week and asked if she would talk to them if they flew her to New York, and she said, 'Sure.'
"She's so positive," he continues, "and I think she's using this national interview as another positive step. There are so many dog bite victims out there, and if she can bring attention to the issue and tell them to be more careful, that's what she's going to do."
Here's another look at Shapiro's interview with Dyer:
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