How the Media Inspires Mass Shooters

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hso

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Very interesting piece calling out the media for making murderers famous and inspiring copycats.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/media-inspires-mass-shooters-copycats

Journalism can be a powerful force for change, and news organizations should not flinch at reporting on mass shootings. But what the Daily News editors didn't realize was that this sensational approach can possibly do more than perturb or offend. Such images provide the notoriety mass killers crave and can even be a jolt of inspiration for the next shooter.

The next one struck just five weeks later, in Oregon. The 26-year-old man who murdered nine and wounded nine others at Umpqua Community College last Thursday had posted comments expressing admiration for the Virginia killer, apparently impressed with his social-media achievement: "His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight."
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very good point! history has shown that there are many ways to become quite famous.

for instance, yu can be really good at something. sports, acting in movies,building great wealth,inventing things humans need,the list goes on and on.

all require hard work and dilligence.and skills.

by far the easiest way to become famous is simply to kill a lot of people.

we can all name at least 6 serial or otherwise killers.

killing really does not take much skill, hard work or practice.its very easy.

if you kill 10 people tomorrow yu will be very famous for awhile.

its instant and takes no skill or hard work.
 
I smiled when I saw a quote from the local sheriff in Oregon "Never say his name."

They have a point, the only way for most to get into the history books is to commit some atrocity (without a lifetime of effort). I would prefer to see these people forgotten. Commit an atrocity for whatever reasons you might have but know that notoriety will not be one of the outcomes.
 
Remember, this notoriety is exactly what John Wilkes Both craved. He never expected to live through the experience but wanted his name to go down in history. The "Media" is complicit in the carnage as long as they publish the shooter's picture.name, and manifesto.
 
Stands to reason they are inspired by something unless its demonic possession (the Malay thought it was caused by the possession of a demonic tiger, which was termed "running amok"). Likewise, these folks seem to at least follow some sort of logical progression in their actions, albeit it fundamentally flawed and delusional (one theory has it that in these people, their basic 'friend vs foe' discrimination becomes stuck in the 'hostile' region, leading them to believe they are literally 'at war with the world' after enough time).

What's not particularly helpful about the realization that attention may be what these nuts crave, is that said attention is the result of healthy human nature. These are notorious events and persons, and denying them notoriety is unnatural. It is what it is. The reason these monsters do these terrible things, is because they are sane enough to know that by hurting as many others as possible as badly as possible, countless more will take notice. Schools and movie theatres were not targeted because of a sick obsession with a particular location, so much as the knowledge that an attack there would shake the greatest number of people to their core.

That's why 'gun free zones' are so often targeted. I suspect it has much less to do with an expected lack of resistance for many of these suicidal murders, so much as the fact that we as a society tend to declare our most precious and vulnerable gathering centers as 'gun free zones.' An attack on a school is a gut-punch whether undefended or jealously guarded. These attackers seek out soft targets most important to us, so this notion that we can just 'ignore' them away is self-defeating. They'll just find something even more horrifying that we won't ignore, until they can convince themselves that their suicide will be made meaningful by it. They are still rationale and intelligent enough to perform that one task, and to think we'll either outsmart them or ignore them reliably is nonsense.

The proper solution is to deal with these trash mercilessly, and quickly. And that means arms in close proximity to the types of places they would seek to target. They will still, will always, make the news. But they won't be taking as many people with them, and that will ultimately put a limit on both their impact and notoriety. Maybe that will reduce the impact even further than ending their attacks quickly, maybe not; but the impact will be reduced from where it is currently. Ideally, we get to a point that the instant one of these attackers crosses the schoolhouse threshold and retrieves a pistol from his bag --a watchful teacher or guard plants one in him from behind. Short of ideal in the real world, the extent of his rage is greatly mitigated by a rapid lethal response.

TCB
 
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Gee, I've only been saying this for more than ten years.

You're taking sociopathic malignant narcissists and teaching them that the way to get people to pay attention to them is to commit mass murder. What would anybody with a triple digit IQ THINK would happen?

If you give your dog a treat every time it bites a toddler, what does anybody think the resulting behavior will be?

What the COMMERCIAL media are doing is TRAINING these walking tumors to kill.

If as they claim, the NRA is "selling guns", then by any reasonable definition, THEY are selling mass murder. And the simple truth is, they just don't CARE, because they're getting PAID.
 
I agree.

I also commend the sherriff in Oregon who didn't want the name of the school shooter released, to avoid him getting publicity which is what these psychos crave.

Of course, the lame stream media doesn't get that. :mad:
 
While the social response seems to be to denigrate the shooter - think about it. In most cases the shooter knows they are not socially high ranking. If anything they are already being told that by gesture and expression daily. They are quite aware the general public doesn't accept them and that's their main issue.

More denigration and trash talk? So what - they have lived a life of it and see it in people's face every day, every moment they are with strangers. The sidelong glance, fawning attention, the conversation that goes around them but doesn't include them.

It's pretty apparent that mainstreaming those with social inabilities - the #1 profile characteristic - has led to some being so forcefully confronted that they are one bullet short in the social skills magazine that they look to notoriety for their compensation.

It might help to reduce the splashy headlines but the press is in full anti gun mode and simply won't stop: a crisis is too good a thing to waste. Moderation isn't going to happen.

Publicity is really just one small facet in the overall changes we need, it's the bringing up and then finding a place in society for those with social skills challenges that is the problem. A lot of the shooter's profiles don't show an inability to put on their own socks, folks, quite the opposite. It's the way we treat them as adults that triggers them - because we are basically cliques of snarky mindsets who put down anyone who doesn't conform. Diversity isn't what is happening - the trend is issues based tribalism.

We're not going to fix it repressing free speech - think about it. If you accept that argument then the AWB is perfectly legitimate and NY's SAFE act a blueprint for how we should handle firearms laws, right? Exact same infringement.

If you can't support free speech then hand over your guns for confiscation. We won't need them any more.
 
Such images provide the notoriety mass killers crave and can even be a jolt of inspiration for the next shooter.
Click to expand...


I, along with many others have been saying this for years. One reason I advocate for and give great respect to those media outlets that do not disclose the shooters name and continuously flash their picture when reporting on the deed. It's human nature to make our mark on society. To many, it doesn't matter if we are remembered for doing good or very bad, as long as folks remember our name.
 
Herostratus complex

The authorities of Ephesus evoked damnatio memoria on him, but his name still got out and the fame he craved lives on.
 
News coverage magnifies a number of widespread but wrong or unverified impressions of
school shooters. Among them are:
•
School violence is an epidemic.
•
All school shooters are alike.
•
The school shooter is always a loner.
•
School shootings are exclusively revenge motivated.
•
Easy access to weapons is THE most significant risk factor.

This comes directly from the FBI
 
Thanks for posting this. I just clinked an a link in this article to another on titled "inside the race to stop the next mass shooter:" http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/mass-shootings-threat-assessment-shooter-fbi-columbine

Mother Jones is rarely friendly to guns, but this article gives me a lot of hope. Two of its major arguments are:

Mass murder is not an impulsive crime—and therein lies the promise of
threat assessment.

When I asked what might explain the recent rise in gun rampages, I
heard the same two words over and over: social media.
 
I suggest the shooters body be propped up in the middle of town and let the critters devour it. When they are done with it lay the bones in the street and run over them with a steel road roller. then wash them down the sewer. Let the media film that and broadcast it for a few months. There is their fame = food for critters nothing more.
 
Would be interesting to contact a law firm in regards to this sort of thing....I've been hearing a lot of outcry lately that the Oregon Shooter's mother should be charged with accessory to murder etc....how about turning the tables?

this guy CLEARLY and openly stated he was inspired by the fame and notoriety the media afforded to previous mass shooter(s)....how about charging the large media outlets with accessory to murder or something??? I know it would probably never hold up in court, but that's not the point.

I've really seen the tide turning on Gun Control as of late and it makes me nervous....quote this now(sadly)but: The next mass shooting that gets caught on someone's HD camera will be the straw that broke the camel's back and its even more so if happens during an election year. very scary to watch Rights that I was born with be taken away in front of my very own eyes...never thought this stuff would happen in my own lifetime.
 
Sports figured it out years ago. Run out on the field and do something stupid? They don't air it anymore. No 15 seconds of fame.
 
Another interesting read:
Clayton Cramer, "Ethical Problems of Mass Murder Coverage In The Mass Media", Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 9:1, Winter 1993-94.
available at: www.claytoncramer.com/scholarly/JMME2.htm

The awe and fear shown in the media toward mass shooters may very well inspire copycats who would seek similar glory. There is a parallel theory that if a mass killer is taken alive and tried and treated as a despised pathetic case the kind of unstable personality who would copy Mr Clap O'Doom would not copy Mr Crappie Loser.
 
A while back I found on the 'net, a sorta funny cartoon that sums it up nicely.
(It does have some minor potty language)
 

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I suggest the shooters body be propped up in the middle of town and let the critters devour it. When they are done with it lay the bones in the street and run over them with a steel road roller. then wash them down the sewer. Let the media film that and broadcast it for a few months. There is their fame = food for critters nothing more.
Click to expand...

That's more or less how they handled it in the old west. People were hung in the town square and the public was invited. Horse thieves were hung where ever they were caught and left there. Murderers were dressed up and put on display in public places for days just so everyone could see what a bunch of losers these guys were. Maybe we should make examples of these shooters in the same way. After a public display of the body for a week the family can come and get it. If no one shows up, take it to the dump and throw it in with the other garbage. No names.
 
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ironworkerwill said:
News coverage magnifies a number of widespread but wrong or unverified impressions of
school shooters. Among them are:
•
School violence is an epidemic.
•
All school shooters are alike.
•
The school shooter is always a loner.
•
School shootings are exclusively revenge motivated.
•
Easy access to weapons is THE most significant risk factor.

This comes directly from the FBI
Click to expand...
Because of course, the FBI doesn't have an agenda, either.:rolleyes:
 
CoalTrain49 said:
That's more or less how they handled it in the old west. People were hung in the town square and the public was invited. Horse thieves were hung where ever they were caught and left there. Murderers were dressed up and put on display in public places for days just so everyone could see what a bunch of losers these guys were. Maybe we should make examples of these shooters in the same way. After a public display of the body for a week the family can come and get it. If no one shows up, take it to the dump and throw it in with the other garbage. No names.
Click to expand...


Still, most Americans still remember the most notorious of them.

John Wesley Hardin

Jesse James

Billy the Kid

Bonnie and Clyde

The Younger Brothers

....all are household names, folk legends and heroes to many. Most died a young and violent death, but they got what they sought, infamy.
 
the FBI doesn't have an agenda, either.
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I'm sure they do. However, they have went through all the trouble to indicate that the media propagates wrong or unverified information.

The bullets I posted are unaltered and are just as they appear on the FBI's file. Note on the last bullet where the whole word THE is capitalized.

My take is: The media has a typical mode, misinformation. Journalism has taken a back seat to truth in order to create an even larger rift among the American people.
 
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