Promoting the Problem – A Vicious Cycle
20 Apr
I’m a pretty regular listener to NPR, though I try to avoid the shows with user call-ins (but that’s another post). I mostly listen to Morning Edition, Day-to-Day, and All Things Considered. Regarding this past week’s programming, though it pains me to say, I would have been surprised if even NPR hadn’t spent half their air time on the Virginia Tech massacre given the severity of the event. Though I expected coverage, I’ve been greatly disturbed on their particular focus on the publicity of the killer.
Though I’m sure some will disagree, spending news time covering every minute detail of this man’s life can only result in a negative impact on society; experts agree that this man did what he did to get his message out (incoherent as it was). He wanted to make sure that everyone knew who he was and how angry he was at the world, and he did that very well. BUT, if he had believed that news stations around the world would speak of every single detail of the incident with the exclusion of the killer and anything about him, I’m guessing he wouldn’t have done it.
Why? Because he would have known that still nobody cared about him and his message. He either would have suppressed it and become self-destructive or found another way (perhaps peacefully), but I believe he wouldn’t do anything nearly as horrible as the worst shooting spree in the history of this country.
Mentally sick individuals still have the same basic desires as the rest of us, and that includes wanting to be popular. I’d love to have everyone know my name and be interested in my work, but the problem with mentally-ill people is that some can get their fix by committing atrocities. Let’s not give them that indulgence. I understand that humans love to gossip and hear the dirt about this tragedy or that embarrassment (please note my extreme loathing for this particular trait of humankind), but can news people please stop perpetuating the publicizing of the problem?
All that said, I suspect nothing will ever change because people will still be gossipmongering people, and news stations will still be greedy corporations that make a profit off said gossipmongerers (spelling?). Just know that I said it here that we shouldn’t be so surprised when 32 are killed on a college campus. I know I wasn’t.
