What if he went to Iraq? (Virginia Tech Shootings)

[bascule]

And by that I mean the Virginia Tech shooter... assuming he was in the military

 

Where the deaths of soldiers and innocent civilians in a foreign land may garner marginal attention, I'd bet the vicarious deaths of American civilians on our home soil would be considerably more compelling.

[Pangloss]

IS there a higher level of attention to the war in Iraq? I mean literally -- is it possibly for us to pay more attention to it than we are already?

[Royston]

I agree with Pangloss, but that aside, you're overlooking the fact that Virgina isn't in a state of huge social and political unrest...where violence is happening on a daily basis, also tragic events (like the one in Virginia) are more newsworthy when closer to home.

 

I wonder how much media coverage the Dunblane massacre received in Indonesia (for example) compared to the UK ?

[geoguy]

There are numerous 24 hour seven days a week news services that need material to fill otherwise anemic on-air time. Events become circuses...blonde white daddy's girl killled in Aruba...Janet Jackson's nipple...Imus's one liner.

 

It's the nature of the media beast. A legitimate news story evolves into ratings generating ball of brain-dead fluff. The new story of the virginia tragedy has morphed into a thousand reporters salivating to find some angle they can squeeze another dropof blood out of. The reporters act 'shocked' but are akin to vultures waiting for the horse in the desert to drop dead.

 

So what if 30,000 other Americans are killed via firearms every year...many in their teens? Not as many angles to milkas the Virginia shooting. Twice as many Americans were killed today by firearms than in the shooting but what the heck... no juice to squeeze from it.

[ecoli]

That's what happens when you a have a 15 minute news cycle. I remember reading the newspaper at the end of the day, and was surprised to realize, that that morning, they did not yet know the name of the killer.