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April 19, 2007

Spare Me

I went to Virginia Tech for graduate school, and I have several close friends that still live in Blacksburg and go to school/teach at VT. I was horrified to see the news of the shootings this week, and my heart goes out to everyone involved.

That said, I am disgusted by the way the media is handling this whole tragedy--CNN in particular. Within hours, CNN anchors were putting kids on the air, asking them to speak about their experiences. These kids fell into two categories:

Group #1: I could hear the shooting, and we were scared, and we didn't know what was going on. Right now, we're just in shock--how could something like this happen?

Group #2: I was somewhere else on campus when I got the news that there was a shooting. I was confused and didn't know what was going on. Right now, we're just in shock--how could something like this happen?

First of all, that's not news and it adds nothing to the story. Coverage like that is just CNN's way of pretending to have breaking news every second of the day...similiar to its crawl bar that often says things like Breaking News: Jury Still Out on XXXX Case.

But then, as if realizing that they weren't producing anything dramatic enough, multiple times I saw the anchors ask the students things like:

"I know you are on television and trying to be professional and calm, but what does it really feel like? Give us a sense of your emotional state of mind." As in, please break down into wracking sobs so the viewers at home can feel like they are getting the best coverage of this breaking news story.

And then, when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I saw Wolf Blitzer (an annoying little man at the best of times) try to compare the shooting with the situation in Palestine. Way to rachet up the drama-factor.

Wolf: So, you are Palestinian, and you're familiar with a situation where lives are at risk every day. Can you tell us [guy who shot the crappy cell phone video that really just shows police walking around with guns, with some shooting in the background], how do the two situations compare?

Guy: Um...well, nothing like this has ever happened back home.

I almost had to drive down to Atlanta and do something drastic. Instead I turned off the television and let Washingtonpost.com update me throughout the day.

Today, I was still irritated, but I thought perhaps we were moving past the hyped-up, major ratings, instant "Tragedy in Blacksburg" logo, spiel. But no--the idiot shooter decided to send photos and video of himself to the media. And they played right into his hands by blasting in nonstop on the television, radio, and internet. What on earth do they hope to accomplish, other than ratings? Do we better understand the tragedy? Do we feel comforted to know he was such a freak? Do we feel safer?

I hope that everyone who watches the video, everyone who searches it out on YouTube, everyone who goes back to replay it, I hope you all feel dirty. As for me, I haven't seen any of the video, and I've only seen the pictures that were unavoidable on the home page of CNN and the Washington Post. It's icky, and I would rather go about my day focusing on other things. When my mind does goes back to my friends at Virginia Tech and the inevitable "what would I have done in a similar situation" questions, I'm happy to know that I have chosen not to delve into the mind of the killer.

Comments

Posted by: mr bad apologies at April 19, 2007 12:45 PM

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