Media At It Again

Weekend Edition by HumanFission

I'm sick and tired of the media. They latch on to the most gruesome thing they can find, then hash and rehash it across the nation as much as they can, underscoring the "horrific nature" and "terrible tragedy" of the event.

Seriously; what good does this do?

None, except for their ratings, which is the point I suppose. All they are doing is playing to the carnal nature of humans to see something horrible. Sure, what they are saying about the act itself is true…it was horrific, it was tragic, but 90% of the people saying that feel nothing of the sort. They watch and give attention for one reason: to satisfy their primal curiosity about death.

Of course these same people will look at you in shock if you mention that to them and say things like "How can you say such things, it's a horrible tragedy!" or "You're a bad person, how can you not feel for those people after such a horrific event."

Maybe I AM a bad person. But I'm not a part of that event. I'm not tied to it in any way; I am an outsider looking in to see something that is an abstract situation. I've never been affected in that way, I can't relate to what is happening there. I don't feel bad about it nor do I feel happy about it. For me to say things like "horrible tragedy" and "Horrific act of violence" would carry about as much weight as saying "blue sky" or "wet water". Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is either lying to themselves or to you, or maybe both.

The media preys on this for ratings. Let me say that again so it sinks in. Not for the humane aspect, not to personify the pain these families and friends are sure to feel, there is no executive producer anywhere right now saying "I want this to be a message, I want it to make an impression to the world so everyone else can see what kind of pain this causes." No…they are saying "how can we focus on this to keep people's attention. How can we boost our ratings? Who can we get an exclusive with that will reveal something no one else has seen, that will shock the nation into watching US?" Ratings. That's all it's about to them, and by focusing on that, and by pushing through half-truths and flawed information as fast as they can they serve only to create this false sense of guilt, not grief, not understanding.

And then the finger-pointing starts. Because with all of this attention, misdirected as it is, there HAS to be a cause, something that can be blamed. Because we can't accept that maybe, just MAYBE, this person was unstable all on his own. That he actively CHOSE to do what he did…no, that can't be possible in our society, so we look for something or someone to blame. Let's blame whoever sold him the gun, let's blame video games, let's blame his parents, and let's blame the people around him. But for God's sake, don't dare step up and say "Hey…maybe we should blame the guy that DID it?" Because the backlash from facing what we as humans are capable of would somehow prevent us from hiding from it. Pushing that out into the open that an individual is responsible for their own actions, no, that goes against everything we've come to rely on in our society.

The only thing this has really done is prove, yet again, how the human race's attention is still commanded not by news of enlightenment, but by self-destruction and death. Beneath our facade of civilization and high society, we still bow to our darker side, and odds are, we always will.