Was the Oakland rampage downplayed? And why?

Or is it because these type of events are becoming so commonplace that the public is becoming de-sensitized to them? The shock value's perhaps no longer there or greatly diminished, to where it's not a top of mind, must read, must know interest to the majority of the public?

Let's consider SportsJournalists.com for example. The thread was on our front page at a point. Now, it's fallen to the depths of page 2---1 post, 172 views. Only 2 threads on the first two pages have fewer views.

If we can answer the why for ourselves, that could translate to why on the broader scale.

 

Captain, I know TV network news dropped the story because of the Dallas-Ft. Worth tornadoes. Network news loves weather disasters even more than mass murder. Better pictures.

 

We don't have a standard for this -- not like we have a written policy like five bodies within 1,000 miles of the paper, 10 bodies within 2,000, 15 within 3,000. We make a subjective choice.

We were the only paper in our state to tear up the cover and splash Gabby Giffords, which I though was the right thing to do. The state's second-largest paper smushed it into a one-column hole. This week they played the Oakland shooting above the fold and we had it below. Maybe they knee-jerked to blowing it last time, but I doubt it. I think we all make these decisions without considering precedents.

Early in my career, a large bunch of people got shot dead in the city I'd just moved to a few months earlier. While it's been hard for me to feel shocked by subsequent shooting incidents. I am usually in favor of getting it on the cover no matter the locale.

 

This was probably a factor.This was a middle-aged nutcase, not a middle-class youth gone bad. And as evil and insane as the kids at Virginia Tech and Columbine were, they had the novelty of hatching a complicated plan and going through with it. Your "normal" rampage otherwise gets lost in the background noise.

 

Korean killing (presumably) Koreans. The public, at large, doesn't give a shit.

 

Nothing I ever write on this site is well-written.

On this on point, I agreed with Dick. It hurt my heart a little to do so.

It's not rocket science.