Media to blame for school shootings?

[EStreetJoe]

Posting this here because I think it's more relevant as a journalism topic than a news topic.... forgive me if it's a d_b.

Interesting article a Facebook friend of mine (who is a staunch conservative) posted, saying the media is just as much to blame as guns for tragedies like the recent one in Connecticut.
http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578185263341273952.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Last paragraph of the story....

Committing journalism is not a wrongful act, and often it is a noble one. But all of us who, in the course of making a living at it, help publicize these horrific acts are in a small way implicated in enabling them. Perhaps those who scapegoat gun-rights supporters do so because they have too much pride to contemplate their own fallen nature.

 

[LongTimeListener]

By James Taranto. Also the Twitter author of this after Aurora: "I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice." Formerly worked for the Heritage Foundation and the libertarian journal Reason Magazine.

No thanks.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Good point. The media should ignore 20 dead first-graders. That's feasible.

At least the obfuscating politicians are taking real money from the NRA. What's the Wall Street Journal's excuse for tap-dancing?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I've had my fill of butt-hurt gun nuts this week, thanks.

Guns didn't kill those kids; publicly acknowledging that shootings take place killed those kids!

 

[Gator]

Sure were a lot of Facebook shares this weekend of heart-warming tales from Friday. Yeah, the media is just awful. People hate it.

 

[Bradley Guire]

People are hypocrits. They tell us what bastards we are while reading our copy.

 

[EStreetJoe]

I'm in agreement that it's our job to report what's going on.
If the attention and notoriety gained by shooting up a classroom and then killing yourself inspires someone to shoot-up a classroom it's not the media's fault.

 

[Point of Order]

How is this person working in journalism?

 

[Ace]

If these mentally unbalanced gunmen were doing it for media attention, wouldn't they would refrain from committing suicide -- as most do -- so that they could enjoy their new-found fame?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Fox News is probably to blame. They spread the delusional fantasy that only if everyone carried a gun around, then there would be someone there to stop all the massacres. After all, Nancy Lanza had those guns and taught her deranged son how to use them for protection.

 

[Point of Order]

I think they might be talking around the fact that she was a Doomsday end timer type person. Odds she was a FNC and Glenn Beck devotee look pretty good.

 

[young-gun11]

What might be the issue here is releasing the killer's names. Many people want those killers to remain nameless. Reason being that by naming them, they become famous in a way. Everyone in the country will know who they are, if only for a brief moment.

Name the children. Be gracious to the families. Don't name the killer...

Just my two cents.

 

[Dick Whitman]

What might be the issue here is releasing the killer's names. Many people want those killers to remain nameless. Reason being that by naming them, they become famous in a way. Everyone in the country will know who they are, if only for a brief moment.

Name the children. Be gracious to the families. Don't name the killer...

This is the opposite of the accepted philosophy in every other crime story. (Note: I get that murders in general are different. Victims are named.)

First of all, it's not feasible. Second of all, it would be irresponsible. Part of preventing future Adam Lanzas is trying to understand the current Adam Lanza, no?

 

[LongTimeListener]

The #1 question in everybody's mind Friday morning was "Who did this?"

The answer is never going to be "some guy we know about but aren't going to tell you."

 

[Dick Whitman]

The #1 question in everybody's mind Friday morning was "Who did this?"

The answer is never going to be "some guy we know about but aren't going to tell you."

I love that this is a conservative push: Don't name the shooter!

Meanwhile, there are 10,000,000 wing nut Web sites on the Internet where whack-a-doos get together and talk about how the mainstream media hides information from them, in order to protect this or that government conspiracy.

Yeah, it would go over really, really well in the conserva-sphere if the mainstream media didn't name Adam Lanza and James Holmes. Really well.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Also it wouldn't allow them to paint the picture of the mentally ill youngster whose condition troubles them so. If there's no shooter, there's no way to shift attention from the weapon.

 

[JRoyal]

Releasing the name can lead to people coming forward who knew him and may know something that could help understand why he did it. If all he's known as is "the shooter" with no photo or name released, then pertinent information that could help prevent future shootings could remain unknown, or at least could remain unknown for longer and make investigators jobs harder.

Has there ever actually been a case of one of these shooters saying they did it to get their face on TV?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Releasing the name can lead to people coming forward who knew him and may know something that could help understand why he did it. If all he's known as is "the shooter" with no photo or name released, then pertinent information that could help prevent future shootings could remain unknown, or at least could remain unknown for longer and make investigators jobs harder.

Has there ever actually been a case of one of these shooters saying they did it to get their face on TV?

Only one that comes to mind is John Hinckley.

 

[beanpole]

Wait, I was just getting over my guilt for railroading Joe Paterno, and now Newtown is my fault?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh all do the **** they do to get their faces on TV and make millions. Ironic.