TURN OFF THE NEWS.......
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but
here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the
news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall
shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names,
but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their
basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going
out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be
remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds
up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech,
as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a
video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard
while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on
all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the
victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they
don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire
for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward
next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name,
and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to
mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You
can help by turning off the news."............. Dave