Unfortunately, in current times, shootings throughout the U.S. have become increasingly frequent. These shootings raise an era of tragedy and panic across the country, and sometimes globally. These violent incidents unleash the reminder of the vital conversations concerning both firearms being put into the wrong hands, and the true motive that made the wrong hands participate in such a heinous act to begin with. Too often, media outlets take the time to try to "explain" why the killer may have acted out in the way that he/she did. Said outlets tend to do this by publishing articles talking bout the criminal's upbringing and/or his/her personality growing up. Typically, the tone of the articles is meant to insight sympathy or some form of explanation. In the aftermath of a violent crime, an excuse for why the murderer is the way he/she is, is the last thing the public really wants to see. This is where the media tends to lose their desired audience.
News outlets find a way to become the enemy during a time in which crisis and worry is unleashed throughout the country. By trying to explain the killers' motives, it comes across as a sickly romanticizing the killer, or at least trying to understand their motivation. It takes a special kind of monster to subscribe to such vicious acts such as homicide, and select news outlets have had the audacity to explain to the world that this poor civilian is just your friendly neighborhood shy, awkward kid. By giving off this sadistic "Murderers, They're Just Like Us!" sensation, the media leaves the sensible, curious portion of the public wondering which side they are even on.
Examples of the media creating a sob story for infamous killers can be found just by surfing the internet, but a more famous and recent precedent is the New York Times article published soon after the shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina church. This homicide was at the hands of a young man named Dylann Roof. In the New York Times article, Roof is painted as a man who had a troubled upbringing and struggled to have a prosperous life. The level of sympathy that is evident throughout this article is so sickening, one would read this and think that the crime that Roof was behind truly was not that harmful at all. However, it most certainly was. Publishing quotes such as, ""When he opened up, you could tell something was wrong at home. He wasn’t at peace,” said Taliaferro Robinson-Heyward, who attended middle school with Mr. Roof. “It wasn’t like he was a mean person, but you could tell he had a darkness to his life.” Would make one think that this could not possibly be about a killer, but rather an ordinary person who grew up with nothing but some bad influences in his life.
Yet another example is spotted in a New York Times article, however, this piece was published after the 2012 Aurora movie theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado. The man who was behind this, James Holmes, was the one and only topic of the entire article, just as Roof was in the article that was written about his crime. In the article written about Holmes, he was not given reasons to feel for him, so much as the article talked about nothing other than him. There is hardly anything in the New York Times' article about the families he had damaged, the people in which he had killed and injured, or the law enforcement involved. Whenever a story comes out after a tragic event such as a murder, the killer at fault is decorated as the star of the show. The glorification of such heinous acts have the power to inspire other civilians with declining mental health to work towards the same fame and recognition that the killer-celebrities are getting on television, in magazines and newspapers, and plastered all over social media outlets. It is a continuous, toxic domino effect, and the media is responsible for the first domino to tip over.
Following the Aurora movie theater mass shooting, news host Anderson Cooper tweeted out to followers that he will "try not to use his name much. History should remember those who died, not their killer." It is time that media world in the US follows the same mentality. It is an unsettling, degrading fact that US mass shooting rates have been increasing at all, but if it can be stopped in any way, it is time to finally cease focusing on those at fault for these statistics. Knowing the childhood of a mass killer does not help victims, their families, or other US citizens feeling less safe than they did before.
The time has come for criminals to be treated as the criminals they have proved themselves to be.
