Enough already
I think I have a) been a journalist for too long, b) become a horrible person, or maybe c) I remain a perfectly nice person who just hasn't gotten a lot of sleep lately, because my second thought after hearing the news on NPR about a shooting on the Virginia Tech campus that left 22 people dead (later the death toll would rise to 33) was one of revulsion, not for the act of violence itself, but for the media assault that is sure to follow. "Here we go again," I thought, scrolling through the coverage in my head: the inevitable comparisons to Columbine, photographs of candlelight vigils and flowers laid around campus, endless images of weeping students, speculative psychoanalytical assessments of the shooter, story after story eulogizing the dead, delving into the pain of those left behind, quoting politicians as they offer up prayers and rattle on about what's to be done. Have I left anything out?Perhaps it's the war in Iraq that's got me so jaded about the wanton waste of human life. Not to mention the ongoing conflict in Israel. Not to mention the latest African genocide. Have I left anything out?
Forget about video games; it's the news that's desensitizing us to violence. How many days in a row can you hear about suicide bombers in crowded marketplaces or American soldiers blown up by roadside IEDs before you start tuning out Morning Edition to replay in your head old episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, until your 4-year-old brings you back to this decade with the words "Four people are dead."
What?
"The radio just said four people died, Ima."
Oh. Yeah, that happens, you want to say, because what else there?
My first thought, by the way, was "Holy crap!" which could be evidence of option C, but unfortunately does not rule out A or B.
posted by judybat at 6:21 PM
7 Comments:
You left out te part about how the media will go on and on like that until the next Anna Nicole story comes along. Seriously, though, what is wrong with our coutry? Do people in other places gave the same rage we do but just less gun access? I would imagine the US does not have the corner market on crazy, and the shooter was a resident alien, so...yeah, it must be the easy access to firearms. Another proud moment this must be for the NRA!
This one, Squirt, deserved some attention - but not the gross indulgence that offends you. Evil and mayhem - not good -- sell; and the media cannot survive without the advertisers.
And without the media, the people would not have known about Vietnam; and that knowledge led to the end of that war. The same is happening with Iraq. The media these days, in an ugly way, serve society as vultures serve the environment.
The fault, dear V., is not in our guns, but in ourselves that we are underlings. I believe Michael Moore prooved that point in "Bowling for Columbine" when his movie reveals -- if I remeber correctly -- that Canada has more guns per capita than the U.S. and far fewer murders per capita. The same point is made when the movie compares Detroit with the Canadian city across the lake. Culture, attitude and upbringing are more the sources of your concern. And this comment is from one who believes the 2nd Amendment has been erased by historical developments: Just read the preamble.
Pig.
I agree with you , Pig. My gripe is not with the media for reporting what's happened; it's with the fact that our culture of violence keeps producing these massacres. And I'm not talking about movies and video games, which are really just a reflection of who we are. I'd say more, but the baby is crying and what I really want to do is take a nap. (Oooh! Option C!)
I think it's a + c = this post. I can totally relate. as solid as some of the pictures have been, I am SOOOO happy not to be in the position of having to cover such a thing, noting your full summation of the prototypical media coverage of such things. And sure, our culture puts "ammunition" into the ether to give those who are mentally unstable, an apparent way out. There are lots of angry young men who don't get the girl who don't go on rampages. sometimes the brain just breaks apart i guess.
although didn't everyone have a guy in their dorm who was likely to "go off."
It's all eerily reminiscent of the shootings in Chapel Hill a few years ago. The real lesson here isn't that guns are too easy to get but that good mental illness treatment is too hard to find.
Yeah - guns aren't too easy to get. For example, you can't get one if you've been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. But wait - the VTech shooter HAD been involuntarily committed because he had been deemed a threat to himself and others.
Well, you know what they say: if we criminalize guns, only people who lie about their criminal history will own guns.
Or something like that.
But YES! Excellent point about treatment for mental illness.
I'll be going now.
I am offended at the ratings grab and at the lack of responsibilty in the media (because of the ratings grab). Its a new world record, 33 dead in one rampage, lets enter that in Guiness! Now we wait for the next over-stimulated over-sexed under-emotionally developed whack job who wants to go for the gold.
This from a gun owner: Hand guns have no earthly purpose other than to kill other humans. We need to stop making them, let alone stop selling them. I find it frankly disconcerting when I see cops with them, let alone students.
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