I find most of the coverage of the Newton shootings to be disgusting.

[Locut0s]

I know this may be an unpopular thing to say and I'm sure I'll get some hate, but I'm sick and tired and frankly not a little disgusted at most of the coverage of this disaster. It's been the same with every mass shooting I can remember and frankly every national tragedy.

The false tone of sadness and disbelief in every reporters delivery hour after hour, the continual asking of "why", the tragic music plaid over and over to scenes of children, parents and funerals all to oh so subtly tug at our heart strings. It's sickening, and honestly horribly disrespectful and emotionally harmful to those who have actually been affected by this horrible tragedy.

Why do we love "tragedy porn" so much? Am I the only one who things it's sickening and frankly emotionally harmful to all of us?

YES this is a horrible tragedy, yes this is one of the worst things to happen in america in a long long time. I am horrified and saddened by this event. But like so many other events, I don't know anyone personally involved and frankly because of that, being horrified and saddened for a period is ALL THAT I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE.

I don't have the right to emotionally bash the country over the head with this day after day playing drippy violin music in the background while interviewing psychiatrist after fake psychiatrist and asking "why" every hour. It rings of false emotions that we can't possible all feel, unless we were personally affected by it, and it's frankly emotionally harmful. And it's particularly insensitive to those who HAVE been directly effected by this tragedy.

How about this for a change. Instead of interviewing parents, teachers, classmates, siblings, aunts, uncles and god knows who else and purposefully dredging up horrible emotions just for ratings (tragedy porn is good for them ratings). Instead of that, why not devote a few of those hours of air time to actually looking at what is REALLY behind all this.

Instead of asking asking the rhetorical "why" and letting your voice trail off to false emotional effect. Why not ask "WHY!" in the form of an investigative journal piece on our gun culture. Why not put together real hard hitting journalism that seeks constructive solutions to this problem. I've seen a few small pieces here and there but not nearly enough!

[Chipper Chat]

1. If I get tired of it

I just turn to the Weather Channel.

[Locut0s]

4. See, I don't think it's healthy that we have to do this

The news should be there to inform and educate the public, not emotionally drown them to the point where they feel they may have to switch to the whether channel.

[cynatnite]

2. I don't mind it that much because I'm not watching it hour after hour...

What has disturbed me most about the coverage is the interviews with children. I think that's too much.

[Locut0s]

3. I'm not watching it hour after hour but it's almost the only thing on the news and I know that...

there are others who DO watch it hour after hour.

[Raine]

5. No hate from me, I agree. nt

[Egnever]

6. I am with you

I was at the doctors office today and CNN was on. They had a group of performers on singing the song from shrek I dont know the name all holding placards with the children's names on them. All I could think was that's some twisted shit right there.

I have never been one who enjoys the wallowing in grief though. It doesnt take long for me to view the coverage as shifting from legitimate coverage of news to sick opportunism.

I am waiting for the Newton relief t shirts to go on sale with the kids names listed on the back....

I find it all very disturbing.

[HiPointDem]

7. KR. I find it pornographic, disrespectful, and FAKE.

[Mojorabbit]

10. Same here. Not watching. nt

[HiPointDem]

11. I haven't either except for the initial reports. once the talking heads got in there it turned into

a nancy grace-style wank fest. prurient and slimy.

[BainsBane]

15. Fake?

Those 20 tiny coffins are not fake. And we all know that you object to seeing the consequences of America's gun fetish.

[HiPointDem]

16. i object to nancy-grace-syle journalism, which is prurient pornography marketed as 'concern'.

[Locut0s]

17. Uhh Nancy Grace, *shudder* don't mention that name. nt

[Mariana]

18. The performances by the various media personalities

are as fake as fake can be. Most of what they've had to say has probably been scripted, rehearsed, and tweaked to provoke the maximum emotional response from the audiences. Most of the people on the TV news shows aren't particularly talented at acting, so the phoniness is obvious.

[FightForMichigan]

19. You know...

they are human, too. I was a reporter for 15 years, and the times I had to talk to a grieving family were easily the worst part of the job and a big reason I started looking for a way out. It's traumatic to be a reporter in that situation. It hurts. I understand you're fed up, but that doesn't make the reporters who have to cover this thing insincere. The last time I had to talk to a grieving family, a family friend accosted me and yelled at me to leave. I didn't blame him, and I wasn't angry, but damn if I didn't cry, too. No one likes it when children needlessly die.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I don't watch the network coverage for day to day news and I avoid it completely

after a tragedy like this. I don't need a reporter to tell me what my emotions should be.

[uppityperson]

9. I agree. Ever see the tv movie "Special Bulletin"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin

The movie focuses on the media's coverage of news, and whether covering the news changes it. The film has no opening credits (unusual for the time). Instead, the program begins with a promo for a typical daytime network lineup: previews of a game show and soap opera are shown, along with a catchy jingle, "RBS: We're Moving Up!" Suddenly, an ominous "Special Bulletin" slide appears on the screen, with an announcer saying "We interrupt this program to bring you a Special Bulletin from RBS News." It shows how a local TV crew, covering a dockworkers' strike, become caught in the middle of a firefight between the U.S. Coast Guard and a tugboat sitting at a dock in Charleston, South Carolina. After several Coast Guard personnel are wounded, the Coast Guardsmen, apparently outgunned, surrender and are taken hostage, as are the reporter and cameraman.

(clip)
Several times during the program, Woodley finds himself debating with Lyman and his colleagues the ethics of television journalism and the role it plays in both covering the activities of terrorists and, at the same time, inadvertently promoting such activities. "TV news is essentially show business," says McKeeson during a particularly heated exchange with Woodley....(more)

I walked in on friends watching this in 83 and had to sit and watch for a while to figure out it wasn't really happening. Once I figured that out, it was incredible, watching tv media coverage, even (whoah) nearly 30 yrs ago. Flashy logo and music, DRAMA!! The purpose of tv news is not to show what is going on but to sell ad time. It is really wrong and disgusting and infuriating.

[wickerwoman]

12. What annoys me is "What do we tell our kids?"

Umm... how about nothing. They're kids. Why are they paying any attention to the news in the first place?

My parents wouldn't have let me watch the news until I was 12 or 13 but it didn't matter as I never had any real desire to watch it. I remember the Challenger disaster when I was 9 or 10 because the teachers at my school brought a TV into the classroom and made a big deal out of it. After that I think the first news story I actively followed under my own steam was the first Gulf War when I was 14 or 15.

What's really offensive is not just the tragedy porn but the implication that we should all be involving our kids in the tragedy porn to somehow "make them feel better" about something they wouldn't otherwise have known anything about.

[HiPointDem]

13. +1. it reminds me of the creepy psychologists on 'hoarders'. "Oh but you must discuss this

trauma, you must analyse it, you must open up for our television audience!!!"

just clean the fucking house.

[plethoro]

14. I agree. Disgusting is the right word. I don't watch

the news anymore. I come here and look for posts about stuff from a few people who are usually clinical.

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Further to your point about 'false emotions,' I don't recall seeing one media broadcast

much less a full-blown media meltdown when these 10 schoolgirls died:



Ten Afghan girls, aged from nine to 13, were killed on Monday when an unexploded bomb or landmine detonated as they were out gathering firewood near their village in eastern Afghanistan.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/17/unexploded-ordnance-kills-10-afghan-children/

Oh, wait, these were terrorists disguised as children