life, death
a while back, i had a kind of controversial post where i stated that i thought several female bloggers received more traffic than they might have otherwise due to their choice to prominently display an attractive picture of themselves. one of those bloggers was lindsay at majikthise, and while i still stand by my earlier comments on the subject and normally don't find her blogging appealing, she has had several excellent posts on the schiavo case. in return, she is now now receiving death threats. lovely.
honestly, watching this entire schiavo thing unfold and reading about it on the internets has been one of the most surreal spectacles i've ever witnessed. these people are truly grasped in the fervor of some bizarre ecstasy i have never experienced, and that i hope to never experience. where's the outrage over the indian reservation killings (not to mention some sort of true action or thoughtful comments by the president)? does no one care that a 9 year old boy was shot in the face last night in d.c.? what kind of terrifying zealousness allows you to slander a private citizen with only hearsay and intuition to back you up or steal a gun to try to "rescue terry"?
honestly, i can't wrap my head around it, nor do i want to. and i obviously have nothing worthwhile or meaningful to say about this case, except that i don't scare too easily - but these people frighten the living daylights out of me. i feel like we're back in medieval times.
Comments
"does no one care that a 9 year old boy was shot in the face last night in d.c.?"
Oh Lord, Catherine, you're starting to sound like me. More kids are killed in D.C. shootings each year than in our random school shootings.
And wall to wall Schiavo coverage borders on the tabloid...
But, should we focus on school shootings and immortalize the killers? I once theorized that if we ignored the shootings in the media, in other words, reserved one newscast to cover the event and then move on, that the incidents would decrease. Just a theory.
Scott, I'm sure you're right about that -- the copycat effect is very real. But what can be done in an interconnected world? Censoring conversations is out of the question. Back in the day, the editorial policy of ABC's news division could have had a big effect, but today there's no hope of holding back the flood of coverage that accompanies gruesome crimes.
what kind of terrifying zealousness allows you to slander a private citizen with only hearsay and intuition to back you up
Happens every day in the blogosphere. See kos & just about every other blog but yours. I've requested and gotten an edit on the most controversial accusation in the post you link to from over at our site.
First, I think the industry could use some self restraint. Interviewing traumatized children from their hospital is just...plain wrong. IMHO.
But I don't know how you can stop the flood. It's here to stay, for better or worse.
i don't understand what you mean, scott. because kids get shot every day we should pay less attention to it? i'm not saying the cases are equivalent or anything...it's all just very weird. of more of a concern to me is the lack of coverage granted the indian reservation killings. it's a very real, terrible story.
Catherine, I've said for years now that shootings in D.C. and other metropolitan areas have been getting less coverage than they deserve. The nation should know more about these more common crimes. I mean, don't you think it's more important to find the root cause of our endemic problems, rather than the obvious maniacal acts?
Do you see the difference I'm raising? I agree with the major gist of your post. Have I made my point clearer?
right. i think we agree on this point. and i'm not saying the reservation shootings should get more coverage than anything - but more than it currently is.
Scott, this conversation makes me curious to know what you thought of Bowling For Columbine. Certainly there are many valid criticisms that can be made of the movie, but I thought its discussion of how news programs -- particularly local news -- selectively feature tragedy was pretty strong.
Tom, I've resisted viewing B4C because I've felt like Moore himself was exploiting the shootings. (I haven't seen F911 for similar reasons) But I'm going to make an exception just to see the portion you mention. I'll get back to you on it after I see it. Perhaps this weekend. Peace. --s
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