Since I’m Already Going to Hell
Since I’m already going to hell, let me be the first to say it: I’m sick of the coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting.
There. I said it.
My sympathy is with the victims, don’t get me wrong. But don’t expect to turn the news on and expect actual news for several days as the news media attaches itself to this story and competes for the most speculation-ridden, emotional coverage.
Currently on the cable news networks: MSNBC - Were the guns legal purchases?; CNN - Kiran Chetry on campus, What do we know about the weapons?; Headline News - All about the guns, the criminal weapon of choice; Fox News - Shepard Smith on campus, Survivors’ stories.
The president has spoken. The congress has rescheduled important hearings. The talk radio circuit will be unlistenable today. But for every other working American, it is Tuesday. We will all go to work, complete our jobs, go home, eat dinner, and go to bed. In the grand scheme of things, this story only truly effects those who are directly involved.
OK, we get it. It is a big story. Now let us please move on.
But no, we’re going to have this crammed down our collective throats for the next week, all under the headline of “breaking news.”
We’re going to see anti-gun stories. We’re going to see stories about poor security and poor response plans. We’re going to see an endless parade of victims. We’re going to see non-stop press conferences where nothing new is revealed, and on the rare occasion that new information comes to light it will be breaking news all over again. We’re going to hear about proposed legislation at the local, state, and federal levels that will likely not be enforced or enforceable, and only serves to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens and not the crazy nuts who are going to break the law anyway.
Currently on MSNBC - Commercials (gotta profit from tragedy, right?), but with a scroller giving us non-breaking breaking news; CNN - Kiran Chetry, talking with more victims with a non-breaking breaking news banner; Headline News - cancellation of athletic events, more non-breaking breaking news with the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks Robin Meade; Fox News - Virginia Tech president talking with Geraldo from yesterday, more non-breaking breaking news.
Let’s move on. Please, let’s move on.
April 21st, 2007 at 2:38 am
I’m also going to hell, as you know. And if I hear one more grieving parent or grieving student or grieving Soledad O’Brien saying “We never thought this kind of thing could happen here” or “You’d expect this in a big city, but not in Blacksburg!” or “This is a quiet town - this sort of thing doesn’t happen in places like this”, I’m going to shoot someone myself. What the hell are they talking about? Virginia Tech is exactly the sort of place “this kind of thing” happens. West Paducah, KY, Littleton, CO, Jacksboro, TN, Moses Lake, WA, Cold Spring, MN, Nickel Mines, PA, Jonesboro, AK - these shootings only ever happen in Puddledump, USA. When was the last time someone opened fire in a school in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles? NEVER! The last thing people should be when violence erupts in the heartland is surprised. grrrrr
April 21st, 2007 at 10:34 am
You hit that one on the head, Wertz!
It’s worth pointing out the murder numbers for an average year (2004):
New York: 539
Chicago: 448
Los Angeles: 489
Blacksburg: 0
So yeah, this kind of thing does happen in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In fact, with Chicago having the least murders of the three in 2004, it happened 14 times, or roughly every 23 days.
It just so happens that the murders occur at an average of 1.23 murders per day instead of all at once, like it does in small town America.
Did it make the major news in on the same level as this event– 5 days of nonstop coverage and counting? Of course not.
I second your grrrrr.
Mike
April 21st, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Well, that’s not exactly the same kind of thing. But, yeah, murder happens everywhere. Mass murders, however (especially in academic settings), seem to be the exclusive domain of small town America. Frankly, I don’t feel that any murder is worthy of the sort of coverage that these school shootings get - with the possible exception of political assassinations that may consequently affect many lives. Otherwise, murder stories are, at best, local news - and should be treated as such. Anything else is simple glorification.