Greg Campbell @ TPNN:
It’s been reported that 14 people at the small Lone Star Community College in Cypruss, Texas, have been injured in a rampage perpetrated by a knife-wielding man. While the details of the attack are still emerging and the conditions of the victims are not yet known, there have been no reports of celebrities calling for knife control or any release of videos to “demand a plan” to end knife violence.
The man, reportedly, used a small knife and ran from building to building committing attacks along the way. Four victims have been flown by Life Flight to hospitals, indicating severe, life-threatening wounds. Fox News reported that the attacker was subdued by a student.
Of course, I join the rest of America in hoping and praying for the victims of the attack. This is a horrendous crime, whatever the details, and I hope for zero casualties and speedy recoveries.
But conspicuously absent in the media or blogosphere are the broad, reactionary calls by celebrities or pundits to remedy the malice of a violent attacker with legislation. While certainly there are comments out there, when we juxtapose this recent attack with that of the shooting at Sandy Hook or Aurora, we see the absence of reaction by those who feel that government intervention is the solution to all of society’s ailments.
Certainly, I advocate not for reactionary, knee-jerk statism; but those who feel a tragedy of a rampage warrants a “national discussion” should be howling for a national discussion as violence has found yet another college campus. But Twitter is largely silent. Trending on Yahoo has “Joe Montana son” at the top.
The horrific shooting at Sandy Hook revealed some of the best and worst emotions that celebrities and the media had to offer. Many offered an outpouring of support while many others offered support, but ghoulishly used the opportunity to try and provoke a “national discussion” over gun control, even interviewing traumatized children to promote their point.
In fact, so eager was the press to rush to the beginning of this discussion, the initial reports swarmed with details accusing the bereaved brother of Adam Lanza of being the shooter.
Wesley Lowery of The Boston Globe noted on Facebook in the hours after Sandy Hook, “It may not be the day to discuss (insert political hot button issue), but for those of us in media, it’s certainly the day to discuss how we cover tragedy. Today we’ve created an echo chamber, interviewed children who witnessed a mass shooting, fed speculation, libeled a man who was not the shooter and created confusion. We can do better.”
In the immediate aftermath of Aurora, Brian Ross reported on ABC News that “Jim Holmes,” the shooter at the theater, might belong to the Tea Party. Without doing a modicum of investigating other than looking in the phone book and cross-referencing the common name with a Tea Party website, national journalist Brian Ross slandered a man.