I would love for all the major media outlets–conventional network news departments, cable news channels, and internet news publishers–to engage in an act of collusion behind an idea mentioned on this evening’s PBS NewHour by David Brooks.
When tragic events like today’s Connecticut shooting happen, don’t identify the alleged killer, don’t display that person’s image, don’t dig up their Facebook page, don’t track down people who know them, don’t publish any of their rants.
Refuse to give killers, like the one alleged to have perpetrated today’s rampage, publicity.
Perpetrators of the sort of horror we’ve seen today often desire a kind of dark fame for their evil actions. When some see that mass murderers get saturation coverage, seeming to hold an entire nation hostage for days, it likely incites them to go for their own twisted glory, too.
There are undoubtedly many factors contributing to the number of mass murders we have experienced in recent years. But, I beg the major news outlets to stop one of those factors in its tracks: Don’t give mass killers the fame they crave.
[This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]
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