Comments

1
I know the intern is an unpaid intern but in the Ravenna 'hood of Seattle..there's little flakes of white stuff coming down from the sky. It's not much but to keep our minds off of other horrible things.....

SNOWPOCOLYSE!!!!!!!!!
2
Speaking of superlative fucked-up-ness, the quality of reporting on the Newtown massacre so far is pathetic. Various sectors of the press have been all but making up shit to fill the void. Law enforcement sources have been leaking bits and snippets, half of which turn out to be wrong, and all kinds of shit is getting into the news that is totally wrong, either factually, ethically, or both.

Do we have to wait for the New Yorker or Rolling Stone to do a properly-researched in-depth article on this story? What the fuck is wrong with daily journalism today?

This was a horrible event of local and national significance. The public deserves a clear, factually-correct account of it. Sourcing unofficial speculation from unnamed "law enforcement sources" does no one a service, especially when it's wrong. After spending a couple hours yesterday flipping local news channels here in New York, all of which covered the aftermath through the entire day, my head was spinning with all the conflicting "information" and bullshit.

Today we read that shooter's (who was originally named as his brother) mother was not, in fact, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary at all. Yesterday, every channel was echoing each other in reporting that not only was she, but she was shot in "her classroom" at the school.

Local television news has always been a septic tank of pretty "communications majors," but the print media has usually been better. As of today, I'm convinced that there aren't many professionals worthy of the name "journalist" working in the business anymore.

Important, tragic story. For God's sake, somebody, get it fucking right!
3
@2, Journalism died years ago. The only the media can come up with are the typical parade of victims and their families (you gotta exploit them for ratings you know) and not even half assed researched information from specialists living on the other side of the country.

4
obviously the media love gun massacres tragedies, great for ratings, and the gun owners an gun lovers love them too, as they "prove" the need for them to own guns in their sick fantasies, 45% of americans own guns, and it's they who profit off this sickness, psychologically and otherwise. let's be more clear. we in america? we love this shit. it's no tragedy, it's the planned and deliberate obvious result of having all these guns all over. do you think if in japan they went from basically no guns to say 60 million guns they wouldn't see this shit too? yes, they would, so yes, the guns are to blame, so yes, the gun owners who block gun control are to blame. the "cause" of the incident is the ez access to guns. it's a wonderful political movement, first you sell half o fall americans guns, then you load them up with message point lies and pride that somehow they are like 1776 revolutionaries, what a fantasy, or defending thehome or some shit like that, this stokes them to fight gun control, and voila! we havelots of murders and massacres leading to demand not for gun control -- that's effectivcely shouted down -- but more demand for guns! man, america sure can put together a great business political model, right? works like a charm. only problem is it also results in all these avoidable deaths. but hey who gives a shit as long as you can go enjoy your glock. certainly YOUR son or nephew would never steal it. right? so blame others, not yourselves.
5
Part of me wishes tragic stories could be embargoed by the media for two weeks or more to allow time for undistracted investigations and reduce publicity for perpetrators, which of course will never happen.

Another part of me tries to charitably understand our ravenous hunger for DETAILS! as 1) a way to learn from experience, to make choices in our own lives that will prevent getting into similar situations, and 2) a wish to internalize as much of the event as possible in order to feel empathy for those involved and thus figure out what we could do to help.

But maybe we're just horrible, insatiable voyeurs.
6
@2 and @5, yesterday left us all not just horrified but frightened, not just we readers/viewers/citizens but the journalists and pundits and politicos too. Most of us lose our shit at least a little under the influence of fear, and make absurd choices, and a lot of us did that yesterday.

Looking over yesterday's Slogorrhea, one person's reaction was super shiny to me - Cienna Madrid's. Not just as a writer but as a person navigating her response and trying to shed a little light rather than just add heat, even from way over here in the corner.

Those posts talking to local NRA members and interviewing her schoolteacher friend - they were an unforgettable part of how that day unfolded, at least to me, and represent the best of what Slog can still offer sometimes.
7
I support gun control.
8
North Korean tour guide sounds like an inherently bad idea, like central African sex tours.
9
#2

The mother apparently had no active connection with the school and was never a teacher there. Adam Lanza reportedly was a genius who did high school in one year (and then spent his life at home, as a goth...). So why target a school and a class of students that had nothing to do with his own life?

And no one is talking about the new breed of early 20s shooter. What trauma could possibly be happening to a person living only 2 decades to make them behave as if there is no tomorrow and everyone from a 1st grader on up is a 2 dimensional target on an LCD?
10
@6 I'll heartily second that. Cienna's writing was splendid. It was an important addition to the coverage of the event, it added perspective, it underlined the politics, pointed focus at some of the points and players in our national debate and was thoughtful. She also reported first-hand, with attribution, the results of actual interviews.

In short, it had all of the elements lacking from the four licensed television broadcast stations who produced yesterday's rumor-fest here in New York.
11
@6 you're correct, we are insatiable voyeurs, it is part of the human condition.
12
@9 I wasn't disagreeing. Sorry about the phrasing. Didn't mean to imply that the print media was wrong about the mom today, just that EVERYBODY was wrong about it yesterday.
14
Today, another one of you responsible gun owners shot up a hospital in Alabama. These stories will be daily now?

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/police-gu…
15
I think part of the reason we want details is so we can convince ourselves that our situations are different and something this horrific will never happen to us.
16
the demand for details is part of the nra strategy to obscure the simple truth: the availa bility of a few hundred million guns in hands of legit owners, puts them in reach of crazies and criminals, and is the cause of this crime. it's very simple. this does not happen in japan. where they got no guns. it's less likely in europe. where guns are tightly limtied and controlled. it's less likely than in australia where they took back guns. the legal ownership of guns in america when this means 45% of us have guns means guns are within reach of ANY crazy person and criminal, and it's that simple. the search for details is to feed the nra loving trolls so they can pretend it's not this simple. guns kill, when you put 200 million guns around your nation, you get massacres. often. as if you were planning it. oh wait! the gun worshipping industry does plan it, they use each incident like this as a way to spike gun purchases get that gun ownership rate up even higher, why weren't teachers armed, etc. more guns is the answer, and it is the cause, this is a great fucking business model with the benfit of keeping right wingers in congress. golly do ya think it's not planned?
17
@14, I bet there'll be another huge shooting this next week, though probably not in a school because of Christmas break. My m-16 owning, father of 3 children, "Obama's gonna take my guns" uncle lives in Alabama, and I'll be fascinated to see how his view evolves after that hospital shooting following so closely after the school shooting.
18
Does anyone know of a memorial for the victims happening in Seattle area this weekend?
19

A former school board official in Newtown called into question earlier reports that Nancy Lanza had been connected to Sandy Hook Elementary School, possibly as part of the teaching staff.

ā€œNo one has heard of her,ā€ said Lillian Bittman, who served on the local school board until 2011. ā€œTeachers donā€™t know her.ā€


http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/12/…

The mystery deepens.

What's the connection between the Lanzas and the school?

20
5pm 18th and union
Candlelight Vigil
24th and Roy, Seattle at 5:00 PMā€”RSVP

Candlelight Vigil
Federal Building, 2nd and Madison, Seattle at 5:00 PMā€”RSVP

Candlelight Vigil
Mt. Baker Park near S. McClellan St., Seattle at 5:00 PMā€”RSVP

Candlelight Vigil
Greenlake, Seattle at 5:30 PMā€”RSVP

These are today.
21
@14: A responsible gun owner does not shoot up a hospital. Once again you pontificate without thinking.
22
I posted comment 20... List of vigils today. It's all I can do or say. :(
23
@21- How droll.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.