The shooting at Virginia Tech will bring out the usual assortment of wingnuts, gun control types, and psychobabble bloviators (one of the stations had Dr. Phil pontificating about the shooter’s mental health). Turns out the shooter bought the gun legally. Turns out his roommates knew he had emotional problems; their interview last night was actually painful – they alternated between shocked and thoughtful young men and beer-chugging, party-hearty collegians. His teachers knew he had emotional problems. Pretty much everyone around this guy knew he had problems. But on a college campus, it’s difficult to really stand out. Sure he was disturbed, but almost any college campus has disturbed people on it and most of them harmless to anyone but themselves.Â
The next school shooting – whether in a high school or one a college campus - isn’t a matter of if, it is a matter of when and where. The response will be the same. The media will jump all over the story – such stories are easy to tell, don’t almost no real effort on the part of the media and ultimately allow reports to emote all over the issue. People will be shocked – Shocked! I tell you! We’ll hear all sorts of breathless ruminations about guns and violence and culture and they’ll we’ll casually switch our TVs to Ultimate Fighting Championship.
#1 by Outraged [former] Repug - April 18th, 2007 at 13:40
There were 183 folks killed in Baghdad today, making Cho’s rampage rather mild by comparison. We should all feel lucky!
#2 by God - April 18th, 2007 at 14:34
I consider the planners and executers of the various middle-east and other blood-baths no less deranged, even thought they function with your tax $, and often your approval.
#3 by Ken Schreiner - April 18th, 2007 at 19:57
As long as our society takes no action to prevent these mass killings, we should be neither shocked nor outraged. I’ve almost forgotten about it already. Just like Trolley Square. I covered an uncountable number of these “senseless tragedies” in my career and concluded that the most “senseless” tragedy is our politicians never do anything about it. I know the majority of Dems and GOPs won’t take on the NRA to increase handgun controls. So I don’t get riled about it anymore. We apparently don’t care enough to vote these clowns out. So we get what we deserve. The families of the Trolley Square victims are simply joined by 33 more who will get nothing but pain and sorrow out of these preventable slaughters.
#4 by Larry Bergan - April 18th, 2007 at 20:56
Money = violence.
OK, simplistic, but worth debating on a level playing field. When existence is denied to some while endowed on others…
#5 by Richard Warnick - April 19th, 2007 at 06:21
The script for this story was pre-written, as the shooter probably knew. NBC ought to have turned his tapes over to the police and made the decision not to air them. No other network had the material, so there was no competitive pressure. Why reward mass murder and possibly encourage another unbalanced individual to kill people at random? That’s a rhetorical question, the answer is: ratings.
#6 by Ken Schreiner - April 19th, 2007 at 06:34
You are correct. Having been in the TV news business, local and network, for more than 30 years (I’m retired now), I can speak with authority. The rantings of lunatics are usually not news until they murder 33 people. Having been in similar situations many times before, the first consideration for any news executive is “how can we get it on the air and kick the asses of our competition?” Somewhere down the list is “what’s best for the families, that community and society as a whole?” Believe me. The feelings of the families were secondary at best. The fact that many of families of victims and students were upset was “collateral damage” and therefore, they become victims again is no surprise. The fact that NBC is the news choice of lunatic murderers isn’t exactly promotable either. Nice, huh?