I’m so frickin’ tired of turning on my TV or opening a newspaper and the feature story is a shooting massacre in a church, a nightclub, a theater, or a school. Then the first thing the stupid news media does is name the shooter. Followed by THE PICTURES. They go on for a week or longer telling us about the shooter’s background, family, friends and about the shooter’s damn dog. Are you kidding me? I’m sure the families of the victims don’t care that the shooter named his dog Spot and neither does anyone else.
Want to reduce the senseless violence? Then the media needs to simply refer to the deranged perpetrator as “the shooter“. Don’t give the shooter their fifteen minutes of fame…that then turns into 15 days or weeks. That is what the shooter is looking and hoping for. They don’t deserve it. All this does is give the next unhappy, unappreciated loner the idea that if they do something even worse, their picture and life history will be splashed all over the media as well.
I say, “Screw them!” If all they are known by is the generic title “the shooter” it might well deter future sick claims to negative fame. The media needs to wise up and see that they are helping these attention starved idiots accomplish Part II of their mission: the post-massacre photo-ops. The media can report on the shootings all they want without showing the shooter’s face or giving their name.
So please hear my plea: News media–be apart of the solution –stop pouring fuel on the problem, then fanning the flame.