Sunday, December 16, 2012

Morgan Freeman: Newtown Tragedy

An Angel Crying

Morgan Freeman's take on what happened in the Newtown Tragedy:

"You want to know, "Why?" This may sound cynical, but here is why. It's because of the way the media reports it. 

Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter -- like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of one single victim of Columbine?

Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and they want to top it by doing something even worse, and going out in a memorable way. 

Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening.

Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Are there any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen, because they don't sell. 

So congratulations, sensationalist media. You've just lit the fire for someone else out there to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and by remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research, instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

Victoria Soto , teacher was 27.

Allison Wyatt was six.

Benjamin Wheeler was six.

Avielle Richman was six.

Jessica Rekos was six.

Caroline Previdi was six.

Noah Pozner was six.

Jack Pinto was six.

Emilie Parker was six.

Grace McDonnell was seven.

James Mattioli was five.

Jesse Lewis was six.

Chase Kowalski was seven.

Catherine Hubbard was six.

Madeleine Hsu was six.

Dylan Hockley was six.

Ana Marquez-Greene was six.

Josephine Gay was seven.

Olivia Engel was six.

Daniel Barden was seven.

Charlotte Bacon was six.

Rachel Davino was 29.

Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist, was 56.

Anne Marie Murphy was 52.

Lauren Rousseau, a teacher, was 30.

Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, was 47.



 "A writer soon learns that easy to read is hard to write." ~CJ Heck


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this simple dose of reason.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting. As if more evidence was needed that the media is biased in what they cover, consider that the CDC says 700 children die in car accidents EVERY DAY. Where's the media on that one??

CJ Heck said...

I agree!

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