Pointing the finger

So, I've been thinking about the news coverage on this nutter who murdered so many at Virginia Tech and the well-thought-out criticism of those news agencies that feed the most prurient tastes of viewers, and my own and others' reactions to these reactions, and the more I consider it, the more certain I am that the fault lies not with those who cover the news, but with those who consume it - us.

NBC has done what they are supposed to have done: they sold ad time. They did this by giving a forum to a deeply disturbed murderer.

What if they hadn't? What would we say when we learned from some other news agency that NBC had suppressed the tape? Wouldn't we be outraged that journalists had failed in their essential duty to give us the whole truth - all the facts?

Now, a local news channel tonight reported on a pair of men who shoved a woman out of her motorized wheelchair and raped her at gunpoint in broad daylight. This is different - these men are still at large, and by reporting their crime and a physical description, we can hope that someone will recognize and report them, leading to their arrest and prosecution, and maybe some increased measure of safety for other would-be victims.

To avidly consume the rantings of a dead murderer is no doubt train-wreck fascinating, but it also encourages the behavior.

There's an old fable that goes like this:
A frog encounters a scorpion drowning at the river's edge, and offers to carry the scorpion safely to the other side. When they reach the other side and the scorpion stings the frog to death, the frog asks why, to which the scorpion's only response is "You knew what I was when you picked me up." There are other versions of this fable: one has a snake. In another, the scorpion kills his savior before they reach safety, killing them both. That's not important.

What's important is that we know what the news is for. To decide for ourselves what we expect of it. When the local paper made a habit of running photos of gory car crashes - people at their worst desperate for help, or bloody remains, my sister canceled her subscription until they mended their ways. We all know that automobile travel is preposterously dangerous, or we should, but seeing our neighbors in their hour of crisis is not informative - it is pornographic. It is prurient. It should be discouraged.

I don't treat my dog when she jumps up unbidden and I don't watch salacious reporting. To behave otherwise would be to compromise myself.