I’ve been saying for years that the mainstream media has been inspiring mass murderers, by giving them intense publicity for their crimes. (And, hypocritically, blaming gun owners and firearms manufacturers.) REASON magazine apparently agrees.  Please take thirteen minutes to view their take on it, and spread it as far as you can.

35 COMMENTS

  1. The background sound track is distracting and needs to be removed. It not only detracts from the message, it makes it difficult to understand parts of it.

    Totally agree with the premise that media coverage is part of the problem and has been for quite some time. “If it bleeds, it leads” has been a front page/top of the program MO for media platforms for decades if not centuries. Now, with the 24/7 news cycle they not only cover the incident, they repeat it ceaselessly for days, if not weeks. And, of course, the many and varied talking heads have to “share their views”. Damn their inflated egos.

  2. Nothing in that video is a surprise to those of us who have been paying attention. Fame seekers gotta seek fame, and with current news reporting practices, killing a bunch of innocents is a quick way to fame. If the media would report the facts without naming the killers, showing their pictures, delving into their histories and backstories, and generally making instant household-name celebrities of them, there’d be much less incentive for mass killings. We’ve been saying this for years.

    But it’s good to see Reason — or anyone with reach — publishing videos like this, and it’s better that they have academic research supporting their assertions.

    I don’t expect the media to change unless forced (by market pressure, not by government). As they implied in the video, mass killing events make for excellent click-bait, and the major media companies would be losing out on all those clicks (and all that sweet, sweet ad revenue) if even one minor player published the killer’s info. The Quest for the Almighty Dollar rules All.

  3. I agree that we must not make celebrities out or mass murderers but we do need to have accurate factual reporting. I do not trust the media to “feed me” the information they deem that I need. I want to know who the shooter is and why, a case in point is the Las Vegas mass shooter, we have never received any of the information from the investigation. The lack of information can be even more dangerous than too much information. The lack of information on the shooter and their background information can prevent media slant on a shooting. A non-shooting example is the recent murder of a young man by an older man in a vehicle, FOX News is reporting the murder, other news outlets are not (or are leaving out the claims that a grown man was so threatened by a young man of opposite political viewpoint that he had to murder him). What if the suspect is still loose, do we not report on weight, height, race, a photo? With recent information on the FBI and DOJ, does anyone trust them to be the filter of what information is passed on? In this day and age I would rather have too much information than not enough.

    • My thoughts exactly. Since the media is scum, I don’t trust them to filter information. Especially, in terrorism and race-based crimes sometimes the only clue we have as to motivation is the name of the perp.

  4. Agreed. Mass murderers should be call and treated as domestic terrorists. Those who survive should be tried without media presence and their names not be released to media. The names of those who die in the act should not be released to media.

  5. I’ve felt that the glory or elevation of individuals who murder in large numbers. When these tragedies occur the media should report that it has happened but then go silent (not their practice). Of course, this is not their habit and the side benefit of their obsession and the parade of anti 2A experts serves their purpose.

    How it can be changed is beyond me. I believe it’s the culture of modern media and obviously the 24/7 repetition of the same information drives it into the psyche of potential future perps. Sad.

  6. I watched that a couple of days ago. It’s like the Left wants to ban matches to stop the next arson.

    Really no surprise to me. The Left just wants our guns. All of them. They also know they can’t do that all in one go so they whittle away at our rights one platform at a time. We need to stand strong.

  7. @WR Moore: All the cool kids do that on their videos. As someone who is deaf in one ear, it is incredibly distracting.

    It’s like the (also annoying) “need” to either keep the camera moving or change shots every 1.5 seconds. I’m not 8 years old. I can actually watch someone who is just speaking.

    I keep posting comments, especially on channels where I’m subscribed, pleading with them to stop.

    No luck, so far.

  8. Are there any intelligent people who disagree with this, especially after enough murderers have written in diaries and manifestos?

    Apparently so. Sad.

    • Intelligent people? No.

      Media execs, thirsty for the ad revenues from click-bait articles? Yes. It always comes down to the money.

      The question is, how can we as a society exert enough market pressure to overcome that thirst (or cost more than the click-bait would generate), without resorting to government censorship of news reporting?

  9. The first such mass killing event with firearms that I recall is the Columbine shooting. Yes, there was plenty of heart-tugging reporting on some of the victims, and how things went down inside amongst them. But the two perps were elevated to hero status ahd kept there for a long time. Over the following year or more there more incidents sufficiently similar to make ME think they were copy-cat wannabe replays by misfits looking for fame, even if post-humous. The Sandy Hook incident was probaably the culmination of that, but we’ve seen recent repeats with the Broward County high school incident and most recently the Texas school incident. When the press make heroes of these wretched examples of humanity, others equally twisted want the fame those wretches got, even after they were dead.

    Funny thing… how many of the REAL heroes, those who ENDED such incidents with their own personal weapons, have gotten the sustained coverage at the same levels as the evil perps have got? Few….. in the mainstream media, what would be the relative coverage level between the killer at Parkland or Uvalde and those who stopped them? Or how about the West Freeway Baptist Church near Dallas? Sutherland Sorings Texas Church? Some coverage of a recent incident where a shooting had commenced and a lone armed hero took some doggone long shots with a handgun and stopped that shooting. Clackamas Towne Centre Mall, three days prior to Sandy Hook, how many here even KNOW about that one? Let alone how it got stopped?

    • Tionico,

      I can think of another copycat attack. In 2002, a 15-year-old pilot stole a plane and purposefully crashed it into a building in Tamp, FL. He was inspired by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. It’s hard to imagine how a human mind can become so twisted. Animals don’t do that. They kill to eat. Here’s the link to the American kamikaze story; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Tampa_Cessna_172_crash

    • Do a search for the Texas Tower shooting which was back in the early 60s.
      The worst school massacre in American history was in 1927. Done with bombs so the anti-gun people don’t care. Perp was a member of the school board.

  10. It would also help if the news media covered more of the good guy stopping a bad guy. This would show guns can be used for good and that these kids embarking on a shooting spree may have resistance.

    • Situations like that fly against The Narrative [TM], and so are never covered in the mainstream media.

      Given the 24/7 glorification of mass-killers, the constant harping that GUNS are the problem (not despondent and possibly-mentally-unstable youth, fatherless homes, etc.), and the NRA is evil incarnate, I ask you: Supposing the media did not, in fact, want to curtail mass killings, but instead sought to subtly encourage and perpetuate them, what would they do different from what they are doing now?

  11. Unfortunately a growing part of our population no longer thinks rationally. My opinion is that mainstream media is partially responsible for this. It’s almost like they want to make people famous for doing wrong things like this. I will never forget what Dr. William Aprill taught about violent criminal actors. They do not think or act in a way we would consider normal, and they can’t be dealt with by being nice to them.
    It seems to me that mindset of many is becoming more and more like the violent criminal actors. I certainly agree that media should not do anything to make this behavior famous, but it seems like a large segment of the people can’t get enough of it.

  12. Although I agree – and have believed for some time – that the media shares a lot of blame, perhaps the last 15 seconds of the video may be the most significant part. Is it possible that someone considering such a terrible action might be persuaded to reconsider if he/she knew that the end result would very likely be personally fatal? Or would it matter?
    I don’t know, but it’s a thought…

    • Viva Awareness! Every prospective Actively Stupid Shooter (“ASS”) should be aware that getting shot is very painful, as well as often final. We need to show ASS-prevention videos of screaming ASSes who were painfully wounded themselves. I do not recommend, however, that any ASSes should shoot anyone, including themselves, anywhere, anytime. If they do decide that they have to shoot SOMEBODY, though, the idiots SHOULD shoot themselves before aiming at somebody else, while humanely avoiding being shot soon by sheepdogs or other final authorities. They might try shooting their own foot first of all. So, morbidly but practically, do not undervalue intentional self-harm as effective ASS-prevention. Most of all, living captive ASSes, let alone the dead ASSes, never again get to watch videos. Justice must be fair, but swifter and more ASS-extinguishing than what we have now. Anybody and their relatives and friends can be ASS-victims, or worse, politically-victimized citizens. Be thou aware.

  13. The “mainstream media” don’t care if they are incentivizing future mass killers, as long as they can spin any incident to promote their leftist ideology. If their reporting was balanced, you would hear much more about armed citizens that stop these killers. Did they praise the young man in Indiana who prevented mass murder? No, they only bleeted that he was carrying a gun “illegally. When that was proven to be false they shut up.

  14. The media outlets are but a symptom of the underlying problem. The root cause of ALL OF OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS is left-wing ideology. The more America falls under the sway of the Leftists, the more we are destroyed as a nation.

    Left-wing ideology is based upon the false premise that humans are naturally good. That the pure, natural human, nay human nature itself, is good but that society is evil. Therefore, all left-wing polices are designed to reward natural human behavior with the assumption that, by doing so, an environment is being created whereby man’s native “good nature” can shine forth. This entire line of thinking is 180 degrees wrong!

    Quote of the Day:

    “Homo homini lupus [man is wolf to man]” ― Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

    Natural man is a predator who is so aggressive that he will readily prey upon his own species. Not so much to eat as food but rather to rob, brutalize, enslave and exploit. Left-wing polices let the wolf into the sheep pen and then expect the wolf to lie down with the sheep!

    Because of left-wing ideology, we have a culture now, in America and in Western Europe whereby a whole host of destructive behaviors are encouraged. Then people wring their hands because everything goes to hell. What else is to be expected?

    We reward mass murderers by giving them the fame and glory that they seek.

    The welfare state rewards sloth and indolence by paying people not to work and by paying farmers to not farm the land.

    We discourage marriage and stable families by rewarding divorce and one-parent families with welfare and the tax code.

    We encourage sexual deviance by a hundred methods.

    We encourage an invasion of illegal aliens across our borders by systematically removing all border controls and handing out free benefits.

    We encourage crime with a revolving door justice system, no cash bail, reduced sentences, and efforts to cripple and defund the police.

    We discourage citizens from protecting themselves from criminals by passing laws that seek to disarm the honest citizen and which target him or her for prosecution even in clear-cut cases of self-defense.

    We discourage honest and clean government by allowing a system of bribes, kick-backs, contributions and privilege. Corruption is so rewarded in Washington, D.C. (and most of our State Governments) that an honest person is soon driven from office since an honest man or woman is an affront to the 99.99% of the politicians who are crooked.

    We encourage polices that allow big business and global corporations to overcharge, limit competition and, generally, cheat honest citizens out of their money on a daily, nay hourly, basis.

    We encourage the loss of our Constitutional freedoms by allowing them to be chipped away and diminished day by day.

    We have a society that is locked into a perfect reverse compass by left-wing ideology. Every behavior that the natural man wants to do is encouraged. As a result, every evil impulse in every human heart is set loose upon the land.

    Then we sit back and whine and complain about how bad things are becoming. Let me give you a tip, folks! If you unchain the devil and turn him loose to roam free, you better expect hell on Earth because that is EXACTLY what you will get!

    Leftists think that they are acting from the best intentions when they move to free mankind to seek out his own heart. Well, the old saw is true: The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions!

    • TN_MAN,

      Amen! You can only grant freedom to people who have self-control. The others will use their freedom to harm themselves and/or others. Government should be good to good people, and bad to bad people.

      • Quote of the Day:

        “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams

  15. Islamic suicide bombers have been conditioned to believe that they are making the ultimate sacrifice for their God and will be awarded in heaven. US mass shooters have undergone very similar conditioning. They believe their lives will amount to nothing and a simple suicide results in them being forgotten forever. Take the innocent with you and your name will live in perpetuity. You will have fame and glory. Everyone in the world will know who you were, especially as the events are remembered and memorialized in the years that follow. That is far better than dying a nobody.

    Hollyweird and every fashion of media glorify these events. Tragedy brings the viewers. Viewers bring the advertisers. Advertisers bring the paychecks. Media could not survive without tragedy.

    We live in a culture of death. We riot when we lose the privilege of killing our children. Those who put the proper emphasis on the sanctity of life are ridiculed and called every sort of hate-filled name. Unless we can change this mindset these sort of events will only grow in size and number. Politicians will seize the opportunity of emergency to pass what should never be passed under the guise of protecting the innocent.

    This is how tyranny begins.

    • I have noticed they’ve mostly given up on that particular blame game. It’s like they finally realized that the same First Amendment that their entire industry relies on — up to and including “if it bleeds, it leads” headlines — also protects R-rated movies, M-rated video games, and “violent” music and cartoons. Or something.

  16. I’ve been saying something like this for years. Stop naming shooters; just call them something accurate but demeaning like: “a pitifully sick and insecure person,” or “a wretched social outcast who couldn’t get attention any other way.”

    Along the same line, every time the media calls someone a “terrorist,” they say: “We did it! We got the recognition we wanted!” Here again, call them cowards, who unlike our brave soldiers and police who put a target on their backs when they put on uniforms, foolishly follow leaders who would not do what they are asking disposable people to do.

  17. Having been close to, in proximity, and physically had to touch such a worthless piece of humanity I find them to be worthless individuals that I lack respect, empathy, or compassion for.

    To me they are lower than the dog shit on the bottom of my shoe. We can also blame the American Criminal Liberties Union for getting rid of the majority of mental institutions. Parents used to have a place to send their useless offspring. These vermin are useless and not worthy of the air they breathe.

  18. Excellent video. I especially like the part beginning 11 min 49 sec in, where the narrator mentions Elijah Dicken, then shows his handiwork, which is inspirational. The narrator even has the brains to suggest we show more dead terrorists, because it might dissuade a few wannabe terrorists. Good suggestion.

    Notice how, in the days when prisons had criminals inside them, we never saw anyone go into a prison and shoot the criminals. No, we only saw criminals shoot up malls, schools, houses of worship, concerts and ball games. No one kills criminals, not even most state governments, whose job it is to at least execute first-degree murderers.

    Killing good people is bad, but killing bad people is good.

  19. Great video.
    Although the media is the greatest part of the problem in several ways, Societal problems are right up there with the media as a cause.
    Over the decades it has become TABOO to shame & ostracize wrong philosophies & ACTIONS.
    Over the decades out & out punishment( serious prison time in REAL prisons & executions) has become more taboo than the suffering & retribution for the real VICTIMS.
    Over the decades our “woke” PC society has reached a point that obvious signals from these perps have seemed to become unseeable.
    This list of societal ills can go on for a while.

    I also truly believe that some of these shootings have been abetted by elements of the government to fit their political needs. These events sometimes seem to be very apropos in their timing.

  20. I wrote to President Biden suggesting he convene a conference of leading media figures and academics at the leading journalism colleges and universities to discuss how to cover mass shootings and reduce the copycat effect of how they have been and, for the most part, are currently covered by the news media. The response from the Biden White House was a generic “thank you for your letter” and a list of efforts the President had made, none of which will have any impact on criminals.

    • Talking about wackos: Putin appears crazy enough to want the world to believe that he is bonkers. He keeps saying “Mine,Mine,Mine” when it is not. That puts him beyond ordinary diplomacy. We absolutely have to make sure that our psywar policy is not loopy, too. I still think that someone here at the top of our career pyramid got too close to his son’s crack smoke too many times. I am also convinced that at least one of our past psywar czars was a paranoid schizophrenic, which is not unusual for some geniuses. Please, no more of that. Let our leadership defer to a combination of patriotism, highest intelligence, experience, and sanity! And right is right, and wrong is wrong, please. Thank you.

  21. I’m not sure the ACLU gets all the blame for the mental health/homeless situation. The head shrinking community and the lower case l liberals (and the drug companies?) launched the concept that many of the patients could self medicate at home. Therefore, keeping them “incarcerated” was depriving them of their freedom without cause and adding to the cost of care. Politicos of many stripes bought this fable for many ideological reasons and here we are today.

    Then there was the “slave labor” fuss about patients who were capable working to raise crops to feed themselves and/or make furniture etc. Productive work bad, painting & other arts & crafts good.

    Mas, hope you and the EP are above water and you still have a home to return to if you’re traveling.

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