This is an open letter to the mainstream media outlets in our great United States of America: Please stop your sensationalist reporting on shooting rampages. You’re killing people.
Yes that’s right. By over-reporting on killing sprees, you are causing more to happen in the future.
No, I’m not exaggerating. You’re directly killing people. As directly as Charles Manson killed his victims when he commissioned his gang to commit murder. Let me explain what you’re doing, although I’m certain that you’re already aware of it.
First, we have to look at why they happen. In the case of school shootings, most of them are committed by angry and depressed young people. We can discuss whether they’re mentally ill or sane, what could be done to help them, or what kind of security measures we could enact to prevent these massacres in the future. And we do discuss these things. And we’re wasting our time.
Because one thing is brutally obvious, and is all we need to know about the perpetrators of these acts: They were “mad at the world” for one reason or another, and they wanted us to know it.
What made killing people a favored solution for these troubled individuals? They could have just as easily made a website to express their frustrations. There are a myriad of other things they could have done to get their point across that don’t involve violence.
Ah, but the answer is so simple! Violence sells. You know this, Big Media, and that’s why you report on these events with such intensity.
My heart goes out to all the victims of these tragedies; including the shooters themselves. These people were ill. They were mad, angry, sad; they were in pain. They wanted to share their pain with the world, but nobody would listen. So they committed these horrible, violent acts in order to get the attention they desired.
And what are you doing, Big Media? You’re giving them a voice. You tell us about what they wrote, what they said, and what they did. Every time, you give us a vivid, explicitly accurate report of how the shooter gunned down his innocent victims. You tell us everything down to the very last gruesome detail, from what weapon they used to what they were wearing, to the exact number of rounds of ammunition they fired.
I have to ask, do you really believe We the American People need to know this information? How does knowing these things benefit us?
After Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech, what did you news corporations do? You aired the video he had mailed to your headquarters a few days before; basically sending the message to any troubled people who might consider mimicking this tragedy: “Go ahead! Go through with it! You’ll get your 15 minutes of fame. And make sure you mail us your manifesto describing why you did it too! We’ll give you a voice.”
You are not journalists. You are drug dealers. Except, instead of narcotics, you peddle sex and violence; fear and moral panic.
“You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option; the decision was yours, now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”
- Cho Seung Hui in taped manifesto aired on NBC.
People always ask why these sad individuals saw violence as a solution. The answer is that it IS a solution. And it is a solution that’s provided by you, the mainstream media.
God hates fags
While you’re at it, you can stop reporting on the hate mongers of Westboro Baptist Church as well. This church is made up of no more than 100 members, yet it can command the attention of an entire country. Why are you giving them this power?
I know sometimes ratings are low. Sometimes both Britney, Lindsay, and Paris manage to stay out of trouble for a while. What horribly slow news days those must be! But do we really need to see reports on the Phelps family’s latest acts of hate every other week?
What’s even more baffling is when you invite one of their members, like Shirley Phelps-Roper, onto your news station to spew their hate rhetoric in person. Have you no shame? Why would you do this?
I can hazard a guess. Maybe it’s because in our country of “liberal vs. conservative,” “Republican vs. Democrat,” it gives your political pundits a chance to look like the good guy to everybody. Everyone hates these people. Having them on your show lets your pundit look like he’s standing up for the little guy against the big bad guy - except who’s really the bad guy here? This group of 100, or the people who give them so much power?
But I think that’s exactly how you want things to be. The idea of the all the power being in the hands of the few; that bowls right up your alley, doesn’t it? You pretend to be our friend when you give this tiny minority of hateful people such a huge voice, but actually, things like this just serve as a distraction; to distract your viewers from their real enemies.
What the hell are you thinking, Big Media? Because it seems to me like you’re actually trying to hurt Americans.
*News Flash Update: Rampage Shooter Liked Zucchini*
I suppose you’re not completely at fault, for if the common citizen was not so obsessed with violence and sex that they hang on every word of every update on the most current murder or rampage or nipple slip, you wouldn’t have a reason to broadcast it, would you? If the average Joe had an attention span that was longer than a goldfish’s, you would not be forced to reduce deeply complex global issues into mere 10 second sound bytes. I guess you’re just giving the people what they want. If we truly wanted real news, you’d give it to us, right?
Well maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s just a matter of changing our minds about what we consider “news.” Maybe it’s just a matter of waking people up to the truth; helping them to see through the wool you’ve pulled over their eyes for so long.
In fact, maybe we should just stop reading your papers and magazines and turn off your news channels all together.
You see, we don’t need you anymore, Big Media. With the wonderful invention called the Internet, we can get our information from other sources. We are starting to see through your facade. People are starting to wake up.
Demicans and Republocrats
Take the presidential election for example. Each election has more and more people labeling themselves as independent or undecided, because they don’t see any redeeming qualities in any of the corrupt candidates you force on us. They’re turning to the internet in droves to find out about who they’re voting for, because they sense that you can’t be trusted anymore.
What they’ve found is that the one or two candidates that could actually make our country great again are ignored and slandered by you. I’m sure you’re threatened by them, because you know that making country great again would involve taking the power away from you and the other elites, and giving it back to the people where it belongs.
Well Big Media, too damn bad, because it’s already happening. The fact is, you are dying.
You’re scared and that’s OK. Everyone is scared of dying. But, please understand, you’re becoming obsolete and there’s nothing you can do about it. Please do not fight it and don’t try to take the rest of us down with you. You have hurt our country enough.
So you can take your Chos and Klebolds, Hiltons and Spears, Giulianis and Clintons, and shove it.
We’re turning you off.
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21 users commented in " Dear Mainstream Media: Please Stop Reporting on School Shootings "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYou are correct about media digging up every little irrelevant detail and presenting it as if it has some significance being unnecessary and irritating, but, that has always been their job. The simple solution is to turn it off. But to suggest they should not report about shootings because it causes more shootings doesn’t make sense to me. First, you can’t hide these events, they happen and must be reported so they can be avoided. The problem won’t go away by ignoring it. We must be reminded that there are dangerous people in our midst. Second, there is always a chance of a copycat event, but for the most part, those desperate individuals already know that they have such options. I don’t think you will avoid any more shootings by pretending they never happen. Why not just pretend the whole world is a fabulous place where nothing bad ever happens, maybe it will come true.
Hi, Phlembol,
Does having knowledge of these kinds of tragedies really benefit you as an individual? How are you safer?
School shootings happen because the perpetrators want media attention. The solution is to give them LESS media attention.
If it bleeds it leads is an old saying for news organizations. This tendency to sensationalize the nastiness of life is one of the primary reasons I have stopped listening to telivision and radio, not just the news but the entertainment parts of those media as well.
It has been several years since I have made that decision and I do not for a moment regret the choice.
I focus on the things I choose and let others do the same.
A Traveler on the Journey,
Gene
We all benefit from knowing about such events. How many lives have been saved because we now better recognize dangerously disturbed individuals? Do a google search for “school tragedy averted” (without the quotes) and see how many times, because the warning signs were NOT ignored, lives were possibly saved.
Would you argue that they only do such things to get on the news and lives wouldn’t need to be saved if we ignore them? I don’t buy it.
Yet they still happen.
You have to learn to separate your emotions from highly charged issues such as this.
School shootings receive a highly disproportionate amount of press compared to the actual danger they pose. The press they receive is what provides the fuel for them to happen again.
Please follow your own advice and google “moral panic.”
Saying that reporting school shootings directly causes people to die is like saying that knowing how to peel apples directly causes people not to eat the skin. Just knowing about something doesn’t mean people will do it. The media isn’t killing anyone, and you’re just being a shock jockey.
As for saying that the ONLY cause of shootings is media attention, that’s a really flat and conceited view of people.
And how can you tell someone to separate their emotions from this? This article is charged with (in my opinion misplaced) outrage and anger. Sort’ve hypocritical to tell someone else to separate their emotions.
It seems to me that no matter what the motive, our “news” media are engaged in a systematic campaign to terrorize the American people into accepting, even welcoming a facist police state with comprehensive surveillance of every citizen, and arbitrary powers to search without warrants, arrest without arraignment, and torture at will.
Every new “murder spree docudrama” is used to advance the facist agenda. For instance, we can thank the Cho Seung Hui incident for delivering all of our formerly confidential public school and medical records into the hands of Federal law enforcement, college guidance counsellors, and of course, the Total Information Awareness program. (TIA was renamed and moved to the NSA under ‘top secret’ cover, after Congress defunded the program.)
The result of converting the “news media” into an entertainment and propaganda medium: Smart people will keep turning the TV off, while stupid people keep watching, believing - and voting for candidates declared “serious” and “viable” by the same media corporations that cheerlead for mass murder wherever they find it.
Ok, they way i see things, you are absolutely right. The thing is, If you think this is only YOUR country, you have another thing coming. Romanians have this real nice 5 o’clock news bit, that literally stalks the hallways of the ER and reports the bloodiest crimes they find there.
On the other hand, ask yourself, other than having a wider choice, how much better is internet, really? I for one feel even more brainwashed here, because it’s an environment i need and work with. TV you can just turn off.
Will,
Your analogy is actually true, whether you realize it or not. Spreading the knowledge of how to create a desired outcome makes it more likely to occur.
But peeling apples causes no pain or suffering; there’s nothing wrong with it, so your analogy is logical but useless.
Think of a child who has a behavior problem. In many cases, kids act out in order to get attention. I don’t have kids, but I know my parents had this figured out when they raised me and my sister.
A parent who yells and screams every time their child misbehaves may find him or her doing it more often, because the kid enjoys getting a rise out of his or her parents.
The child’s parents, in condemning their child’s behavior, without realizing it, are actually REINFORCING it. A calm, even handed approach is much more effective.
I never said news media is the “only cause” of school violence, but I am saying that the news media *reinforces* it. They are complicit in these crimes, as are we.
Shadhe,
You’re right. I focus on American media because I live here, but I’m sure this is prevalent in other Western countries too.
I think at this point, the internet is a better medium to find information, and so are books.
But it all hinges on the choices you make. If you don’t watch cable news, but you buy and read the books these hateful political pundits publish, you’re not really making better choices.
I can vouch for that.There is fierce media competition in India recently and some of them have become tabloid type stations who tell exaggerated and sensationalized stories.
So they started there extensive coverage on American shootings and guess what?..never in history of India there have been school shootings but now i think its 2-3 events already in a year.
Amrit,
Wow, that’s enlightening, and unfortunate. Thanks for the comment.
What isn’t commented on it the fact that every one of these killers have been in the care of a psychiatrist of some sort and then kills themselves after their rampage. Am I the only one who sees the Manchurian Candidate connection to this? The main reason the news media reports so heavily is because they are complicit in the desire to remove guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens, so that this country will be easier to subdue when the time comes. If it weren’t for fear of the many armed individuals in this country, I believe the “New World Order” would be a present reality. I am not a gun owner, but I am a firm believer in the Constitution and the 2nd amendment which was placed there in the event that a despotic government should again need to be guarded against.
Absolute rubbish.
To try to connect a shooting to its reporting is a stretch on par with Bush’s allegations of WMDs in Iraq.
You present no evidence to back up your theory nor do you reason it past your own intuitions, using what amounts to circular logic as “proof” of your assertions.
What we actually need is to get rid of ignorant, uninformed opinionists such as yourself.
Excellent article. Blood ans sex sells; both of which give extra incentive to lonely, angry, confused kids. Here’s hoping that someone in the MSM hears your argument.
Sorry, that should be, “blood and sex sell”
I think is an excellent commentary. If I could write so clearly, I would have tried to write something very similar. I wrote a story about being a teacher at a high school right after Columbine. It might be a nice complimentary read to this piece.
You know, everyone blames it on the media. Boo hoo. People were killing each other with guns way before the media was reporting on it. It’s not the media’s fault. If they didn’t report on it, you would criticize them for that, saying they weren’t doing their jobs. What about the countless tributes and backgrounds on the victims,forever memorialized in the pages and sites of news organizations?
I agree though sometimes they focus too much on the killers, but focusing on the killers sheds light on them and how they came to do it so that sort of thing can be prevented. Remember Columbine? Schools across the nation created a no-tolerance policies on bullying. After Virginia Tech, colleges across the nation as well revamped their psychological safety nets in catching those troubled, as well as implementing quicker, new emergency notification systems.
What really causes school shootings? Trauma and/or mental illnesses in the individual and the lack of support for them. Maybe violent video games or TV contribute that glorify things like this, but it starts in the individual.
Allie,
You’re not questioning whether these safety measures are actually doing any good.
If they’re not preventing school violence, (how many shootings have happened since Columbine?) then your defense falls apart and we should look elsewhere for answers.
Your true reasoning rests on fear. You want the media to report on these events not because you have concluded logically that you will be better off if informed of these tragedies, but because you’re irrationally afraid of it happening to you.
Do you wonder how much media attention shootings rampages receive compared to how many deaths they cause each year? I’m sure it’s very disproportionate.
Interesting thoughts. Some food for thought for critics:
The media in general has stopped reporting or sensationalizing suicides because it was discovered that after every well publicized suicide, there were a number of “copy cat” suicides. I’m sure you can find the link to the study through a google scholar search.
Another thing that might bake your noodle is that crime rates increased as televisions were introduced in cities, one after another. Google scholar search should reveal the study, too.
The media does not simply “report”. At this point the media definitely has an effect, whether intended or not. If you are a regular consumer of the media, try going on a 30-day trial fast from the media and see how you feel. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably start to feel better and less down.
Cheers!
[…] Posted in March 30th, 2008 by Tony in mainstream media, rants A while back, I wrote a post condemning the mainstream media for its constant glorification of violence. In general, our news media kind of sucks, but I wanted […]
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