Virginia Tech: The Movie
Without doubt, the recent incident at Virginia Tech was lamentable, but since everyone is talking about the actual event, I want to take a look at the media’s role in the occurrence.
From CNN to FOX News, the media giants are all over themselves with taking advantage of the situation to create some entertaining, rating garnering drama. They leapt on this “breaking news” with glee, barely able to contain their salivation.
Listening to all the anchors talk about how unspeakable, senseless, unimaginable, tragic, and horrible the massacre was, I have to wonder just how sincere they are. It’s their job to find the big scoop, and this unfortunate happenstance was paydirt. I’m not saying that none of them truly find it horrendous, but it’s hard to ignore the ridiculous zeal with which they attempt to find yet another storyline from each and every angle of anyone and everyone involved.
It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes after the shootings that students were already being interviewed. Reporters wanted to know every last aspect of each person’s experience, from what they were feeling to what they saw and heard, to what they did directly afterwards, to what they are going to do next, to how they are going to cope with the trauma…ad nauseum.
And, of course, to add to the show, there is touching piano music and images that are supposed to look nostalgic and historic despite the fact that they were taken two hours ago.
It is drama, pure and simple, and it sickens me to my very being.
Perhaps even more nauseating is the fact that this bullshit must be popular with the American public, or we wouldn’t continue to see it. It’s all about ratings. It’s all about the dollar. If you try to pretend that it is not, you are a fool.
The killings at Virginia Tech have dominated the media for days now, and no doubt will continue to for a long time. This is no surprise. After all, they are calling it the “worst mass shooting in American history.”
The media’s disgusting obsession with a single news event is not new. They have recently done the same thing with the Don Imus/Rutgers incident and…God help me…Anna Nicole Smith. They don’t care about you. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about Virginia Tech.
They care about ratings. They care about the next big story, and all the little ones they can make out of it. Media is no longer about reporting the news, but about entertaining the public.
So, sit back and enjoy the show.
