Hence why I consider it pandering.



And at the most inappropriate of times.

Without a doubt. I almost threw something at my TV when I absentmindedly left KCAL 9 news on after a Dodger game on Monday. Virginia Tech was of course the top story. Immediately after the 30 seconds of actual reporting on the facts, the very next thing was, "Being only 18 miles from our nation's capital, this tragedy reverberated through Washington DC. Let's turn to our analyst to discuss the political ramifications of today's events." Disgusting.

So I'm right there with you on that. I just don't buy into conflating it with any feelings about the reporting in Iraq, beyond my overall distaste for new reporting.

Newspapers, news websites, radio and television are all businesses. There are an extreme few that aren't... but even they are, to an extent. They're there to attract attention, get clicks, have people looking at their pages, listening to and watching their commercials. The more they can get to "hang on" through the commercial, the more money they make. As altruistic as any of them want to be, as any individual may be, ends need to be met and few will work for free.

So, I try to impose no moral judgment on it. They have a business to run, and I recognize it for what it is. It's my job to sort it out - and it's my duty to friends and family to help keep their minds open to other possibilities, what isn't being said and to always learn for oneself.

What happened in Virginia Tech is more horrifying to most people than what happens in Iraq, Rwanda, etc. not because we value young white southern lives more than young brown African lives but for the different--yet somewhat related--reason that Choi's act appears to be a horrible, arbitrary violation of the social contract.

In America, we live under the belief that we have tamed killing for the sheer pleasure of killing and we are confident that no one will run us over in the crosswalk because it amuses them to do so, and we fear what would happen if those internal checks disappeared on a mass scale. By contrast, we believe that the Iraqi and Rwandan factions have no social fabric to tear, that life is cheap over there and that the victims of these atrocities would happily be on the power end of the bomb or machete if given half a chance.

It's the same view that inspires the "fine, let them all kill each other" sentiment regarding American gang violence.

Another tragedy is that acting like this actually makes money for the media. I would ask the question of who, exactly, enjoys watching reporting like this, but I've seen that glow in the eyes of my coworkers as they describe how the nightly news dissected some horrible event.

Ratings for news have been thru the roof since this started.


Sometimes Americans sicken me.

I haven't done my part. Since it happened my total consumption of televised news about it has been about 40 minutes (30 minutes of that while eating lunch in a room with the TV on).

Haven't even read much about it online.

To be harshly honest, I'm not even all that upset about it. It is just so random as to be emotionally meaningless unless I'm directly impacted. Like 33 people dying in a small plane crash or in an earthquake. I've noted it, it'll be stored away, and I've moved on.

I haven't watched a minute of it ... and didn't click on any more details than what my internet home page showed me.


But I did look with interest at a co-workers computer today, displaying photo after photo of Cho posing with guns, knives and - in one particularly gruesome photo - a hammer. Weirdass stuff. I couldn't help but be fascinated and disgusted.

For me, I have a strange fascination for crazy people. I always want to know why they snapped. In this case, I wanted to know who he was and why he might've ended up doing something so terrible.

The resulting deaths are just as tragic as death due to war but the unexpected nature of them gives them a fascinating edge. Everyone knows that war will end in a certain amount of deaths. Going to school does not have the same reputation.

I wonder if CBS, Fox, and ABC are upset because NBC was the recipient of the mailing from the shooter. Seriously.

There is always competition to have "the angle" on a story. As Alex said, his local news can't just cover the story, they have to have their angle on it...a Bay Area connection.

There will be the obligatory calls for more gun control, the mental facility (and doctor who performed the psychiatric evaluation) he was ordered to will be brought under scrutiny as to what blame they may bear....it will have a life as a story until the next major story comes along. The Imus story wasn't done with its run yet, as that had become about how Oprah was going to lead the healing.

I suppose I somewhat agree with Strangler, but I have the opposite reaction that he describes. I am more sickened by the systematic killing in a Rwanda than I am a random act in Virginia. While both are tragic, 800,000 deaths is simply something I cannot comprehend. I suppose that is why there is not more coverage of that...it is impossible to relate to, and as an American I wonder what there is that can be done about it or other situations like it. It is too....overwhelming.

There is no debating Saddam was responsible for some 300,000 deaths. Yet something is done about it, and the situation is regarded as worse than before (I would use the term different rather than better or worse). When an effort was made to feed starving thousands in Somalia, the local warlords didn't want their control of food (and therefore the populace) lost, so even that humanitarian effort was met with opposition that we were unwilling to meet head on.

So I suppose the news, and Americans in general, don't want to hear about something that they can't do anything about. Perhaps a large portion of the population believes that there is something that they can do to prevent something like the VA Tech incident from happening again....but what can they do about a Rwanda, or even an Iraq at this point? Even the elections have seen the dems get their share of anti war anger for refusing to defund the war in Iraq.

Americans don't want to hear about horrible things that they feel powerless to resolve. Not many Americans understand true hardship, and even fewer can comprehend genocide beyond the meaning of the word. I don't think it is that we don't care about those people and situation,s I think it is that we simply can't comprehend them.