Naming Names?

Aha! Someone was eve's dropping on my conversation the other day. We were talking about the latest coward in Omaha to go up against innocent lives with an automatic weapon. God, how pissed I was when the news was talking about his note saying at least he would be famous now. Well don't publish his name! Don't utter it on air. Ever. Don't give them what they were looking for. Remember the Virginia Tech shooting? He sent that package to the news station between shootings! In part, this article is true. Did I remember the name of the Columbine shooters? No I didn't. I don't remember the name of the guy who shot the people at Albertson's here. Already I had forgotten the name of the Virginia Tech guy. People remember the act more than the one who committed it or were victims of it. The media is who drills this information into our brains. There was a lot more reported about the shooter than the victims. Someone who is a little wacko, or a lot wacko, may see this as some kind of glory. Where the media is concerned I understand they have a certain obligation to report the news. Come on, if you don't glorify what the shooter did and focus on the humanity, the victims and there families and what they lost maybe, just maybe one guy out there will change his mind when he sees there's no recognition in it. No blaze of glory, no media frenzy. Could this maybe fall under a matter of public safety? If one channel, one broadcaster had the balls to set this kind of precedence or if the public clamored for it, maybe we could help end this type of thing. If it prevented it from happening once it would be worth it, "duty to informing the public" be damned.

Since I'm bitching about the media, on a separate note here, I really don't care what Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears is doing! If it doesn't pertain to a movie or CD I don't want to know! Even then I really, really don't. Since Paris Hilton is only famous for being famous I would never have to hear about her again! I would put money on the fact that many reporters could not name one soldier killed in Iraq. Those are the names that should be headlines, not some twitty Hollywood starlets.

Stepping off my soapbox now...