- On April 15th, 2013 at 2:49PM something terrible happened in Boston, Massachusetts. Two bombs ripped through crowds of people who were there to cheer on the runners of the annual Boston Marathon. Some lives were lost...many lives were changed forever.
- On April 23, 2013 there were two bomb threats called in regarding a school in Cornelius, NC. Thankfully, both threats were empty and there were no real bombs to be found.
- On July 20th, 2012 James Holmes walked into the Century movie theater in Aurora, CO and opened fire. 12 people were killed and 58 were wounded.
- On December 11, 2012 Jacob Roberts entered the Clackamas Town Center mall in Portland, Oregon. He killed two people and injured a third before turning the gun on himself. Four days later Adam Lanza would walk into Sandy Hook Elementary School and slaughter 26 children and six teachers.
These are a few incidents that we have seen in just the past 12 months, all of which are horrific tragedies and the surviving families and friends are due our deepest sympathy and prayers. There are few, if any, Americans who are not in some way familiar with most or all of these incidents. This is because we have access to around-the-clock media, whether it be online and television news outlets, social media or traditional print media. Anytime something happens there is a flurry of activity by the media to "get the scoop." In principle I have no problem with this because that is how news companies make money and it is beneficial to keep people informed of what is going on in the world. However, there are some serious problems with the way incidents like those above are being handled in our day in age.
The first problem, which I will not spend much time on in deference to the second problem, is that the "scoop" has become the goal rather than the truth. We witnessed a perfect example of this just the other day when news "leaked" out that the authorities had a suspect in the Boston bombing. As we soon found out, that was not the case and if it had been...well...the suspect just got a nice warning. This wouldn't be nearly as bad if most of the population didn't take what they hear on the news to be truth. There is an unwritten agreement between the people and the media that the people will believe the media if they will tell them the truth. Unfortunately, the media is no longer undertaking a quest for the truth. However, in our age when truth is something of a moving target I suppose we should not be surprised when people choose to manufacture it rather than find it. The same thing happened when we discovered we could make something that looks an awful lot like a diamond. Diamonds are certainly very hard to come by, which is why they are so valuable, so rather than go to all the trouble of finding them we decided to make a cheap knock-off, cubic zirconium. Like a lie disguised as truth, cubic zirconium will never be as good or as valuable as a diamond.
The second problem is where I would like to expend some some of my meager mental energy. Let me start by saying that I believe we should rename the "news" to the "bad news." Nothing sells papers, gains website traffic or boosts ratings like a good scandal, shooting, terrorist act or tragedy. Each time some horrific event unfolds in the world we have wall-to-wall media coverage of the act, the victims, and the suspects. If nothing else bothers us about this, the excruciating pain that this puts the families and survivors through should. Every time they turn on the television or pull up a web browser they come face to face with the event that changed their lives. That is not to mention all the speculation and punditry that comes along with something like a shooting or bombing. The reigning idea seems to be "Hey, we don't know anything about what happened so let's get some other people who don't know what happened and talk about how much we don't know but we think there might be a small possibility of." There is much to be said for the old adage that "discretion is the better part of valor." What is the matter with saying something to the effect of, "Here is what happened. We don't know why, who did it, or how many people were hurt, but we'll let you know when we find out." Instead the media speculates and before long their speculation turns into rumor which has a nasty habit of becoming truth to the less informed.Why? Because people expect to hear truth from the media (see previous paragraph).
This leads us to another, potential side-effect of poor media behavior. The elevation of criminals and sociopaths to instant celebrities. Now, I freely admit that I cannot speak to the psychological aspects of the criminal mind but I can say that there is a certain demographic within the population that seeks fame and notoriety. One only has to browse through YouTube for a few minutes to understand the human beings will do really idiotic things to get attention. There is no price too high for someone's fifteen minutes of fame. On the other hand stories of heroism and courage are usually ignored or brushed aside to give more time to the perpetrator of the crime. How much press was given to Nick Meli, the concealed carry permit holder, who drew his firearm on Jacob Roberts in an effort to stop the shooting in the Oregon mall? What about the concealed carry holder who stopped a stabbing at a store in Salt Lake City in April of 2012? Nothing. The media is muffled at best and many times silent when it comes to good citizens doing the right thing in bad situations.
With all of that in mind I am inclined to ponder whether or not the media carries any responsibility for continued acts of violence in our society. The message that the media is sending to people is, "If you really want our attention you need to commit some kind of heinous crime." This takes very little skill, I mean how much talent does it take to call up a school and tell them you placed a bomb in their facility? The era of greatness earning you a place in society is long gone. Perhaps the most popular portions of the American Idol auditions are the people who are absolutely awful. You see, it doesn't take a great act of courage, talent or moral fortitude to become known any more. In fact, I believe the exact opposite is true nowadays.
I confess that I do not have a good solution to these problems. The media machine is almost too big to change at this point, but then again I say "almost." There is always hope. What if more people held the media accountable? What if there was public outcry against misbehavior by the media? What if we demanded to see more stories of courage and good will rather than the elevation of criminals to the level of virtual movie stars? What if the people called for the media to bear some of the burden for repeated acts of violence in our world? As far as I am concerned the major news outlets are no better than the National Inquirer or the Sun magazine, that is to say...trash. My stomach turns at their unending coverage of national and personal tragedies and their exaltation of the sociopath. Of course, perhaps the media is just a mirror-like reflection of our society. I sure hope not.
Semper Libertas,
RV
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