Re: virus: shootings and all the attendant hoopla

Laura McConnelly (lauram@wolfenet.com)
Wed, 28 Apr 1999 16:22:38 -0700

I am so glad that I am NOT alone. I seem to hear the same thing in the news and off the street. People are SUPRISED! Why??? It seems to me that whenever you turn on the tv, listen to the radio, or open up a newspaper nowadays we're learning about some young kid blasting someone's head off. Whatever happened to the good ol' days of bombings and plane crashes?

And the MEDIA!! I don't know if I even want to go there. Did anyone see the interview with Katie Couric, one of the kids, and a parent of one of the slain?? It aired in the beginning of the week. It was a very moving and gut wrenching interview. I have to admit that even I was glued to the young man's re-enactment of the horror at Columbine. I was moved by the interview until I realized that this one interview was done not just for the sensationalism but for also the stations ratings and the ratings of the interviewer.

I apologize now if I have offended anyone by my outburst. But, I believe that plastering other peoples pain and suffering for the sake of news/ratings is disgusting.

Richard Aynesworthy wrote:

> ...there seems to be a lot of surprise at the shootings in Littleton.
> While I can understand the surprise of the particular community I
> can't help but wonder that people seem astounded in general when (as
> has happened repeatedly in US school shootings) young white upper-
> middle class males start killing people.
>
> ...is there anybody but me out there who WASN'T surprised?
>
> ...is there anybody but me out there who was more surprised at the
> EXTENT of the coverage than the CONTENT?
>
> ...there's a Japanese proverb that fits:
>
> -you can fix the problem
> or you can fix the blame
> not both.
>
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