Not a Bad Idea
Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 9:23am

Over at HuffPo, Sheldon Drobny volunteers:

"If you want to get through the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre in a healthier way, don't watch the news for about a week. If you did not need an anti-depressant before this event, you may have to start if you decide to listen, watch, or read the news. These vultures will do you in."

good idea. Probably applies to blogs, too, for that matter. What we saw yesterday is a daily event in other parts of the world, but leaves us speechless when it happens here. Are we winning the war on terror, or is the media?

Drobny adds:

Since 9/11 our President has told us "we have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here." Since this particular assassin is a Chinese National, perhaps GWB would consider attacking China in his sick logic. My answer is that "we have to fight them here so we don't have to fight them here." And the ones we have to fight here are mostly the politicians and media moguls that use fear and propaganda to line their own pockets and give them the power of nightmares to control and exploit us.

So take a break. Don't feed the MSM trolls and succumb to their fear and intimidation tactics as they exploit tragedy for ratings.

Update: Drobny's analysis was posted before the announcement that the shooter was actually a Korean national. doesn't change his point.

34
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Elrod's picture

Korean, not Chinese

Submitted by Elrod on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 9:43am.

The student was a Korean American who immigrated as a child. In all likelihood he was completely Americanized like hundreds of thousands of other Northern Virginians who immigrated from East Asia. I bet the next story we'll hear about is how he suffered so much from typicaly Asian-American pressure to do well in school and just snapped. Or something like that. Watch out for the pseudo-sociologists.

Rachel's picture

I bet the next story we'll

Submitted by Rachel on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 2:24pm.

I bet the next story we'll hear about is how he suffered so much from typicaly Asian-American pressure to do well in school and just snapped.

Oh, I heard it already. LAST NIGHT. From some profiler guy who, based on the description of the shooter as "Asian", was speculating that he snapped due to the pressures to achieve in his "culture."

Look, I'm checking in with the news every 3 or 4 hours - I confess to being interested in new developments; i.e., NEWS. I'm not interested in a continual stream of rehash, speculation, and voyeurism.

CBT's picture

Good advice about limiting

Submitted by CBT on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 2:01pm.

Good advice about limiting news watching. Even moreso than other days, it's the same thing over and over again. There is not 24 hours worth of 'news' to report on this one, albeit tragic story.

As for the anology to Islamic terrorists, last time I checked I don't think we've had South Koreans bombing American buildings, hi-jacking planes and killing thousands of Americans.

Though we know very little about the killer, I suspect it had little to do with his ethnicity. Nuts come in lots of flavors. Sorry if that seems somehow insensitive to the killer's mental condition.

metulj's picture

I watched about an hour of

Submitted by metulj on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 2:18pm.

I watched about an hour of the coverage this morning just for anthropological purposes. It's hard to be disgusted by it as it is all about 2 inches deep and 2 inches wide. NPR (in the car on the way to the office) was certainly not immune to sensationalism, but took deep breaths occasionally. I expect that of them. CNN, FauxNews, etc not so much.

Good point about the ethnicity, CBT. Most likely this was a breakdown where the kid lost his girl to another guy and snapped. The cause could be as simple as that.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Sven's picture

As for the anology to

Submitted by Sven on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 2:39pm.

As for the anology to Islamic terrorists, last time I checked I don't think we've had South Koreans bombing American buildings, hi-jacking planes and killing thousands of Americans.

I don't know. If you tilt your head and squint your eyes, that might seem like a rationalization for casting suspicion on all "Islamics."

rocketsquirrel's picture

not much fun

Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 3:01pm.

having to preemptively explain to your eight year old how 32 people were murdered at a college campus yesterday before sending him off to school. better he heard it from us than somewhere else. When I was young, parents encouraged kids to tune into the news. now, not so much.

Up Goose Creek's picture

Proportions

Submitted by Up Goose Creek on Tue, 2007/04/17 - 6:04pm.

Of course this is a horrible tragedy but when 32 citizens die in a car bombing of a marketplce in Iraq or Pakistan it is barely a blip on the evening news. I realize this warrants more coverage as it is closer to home but 100 times more coverage???

Likewise hundreds of disfunctional marriages end in murder right here in the USA but all the attention goes to the preacher's wife.

It's like middle class American life is supposed to be immune to tragedy. Tragedy will happen to someone else so we don't have to think about it. (insert sarcastic emoticon)

____________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

F-Stop's picture

A wise person once told me

Submitted by F-Stop on Wed, 2007/04/18 - 8:35pm.

A wise person once told me that he wanted to leave the world in better shape than he found it. ;>

If everyone made that their mission, or at least thought about it (and about others) more often, we would get closer to eliminating these and the thousands of other less newsworthy acts of violence...

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