Our Pathetic Media

Okay, I'm having a really busy day, so this will be short and unsweet. In the days following the tragic shooting in Arizona, that left several people dead, including a nine year old girl, the media has dove into a absolute frenzy over figuring out which political party the shooter, Jared Loughner, was representing with his heinous act. And due to the fact that Mr. Loughner has been less than helpful to the police, his silence has only intensified this hi-def mudslinging display. Media Matters, the frankly leftist think tank, immediately pounced on Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, revisiting their history of using violent language and images to speak about their political foes. The right instantly slammed the left for using the event as a political tool by prematurally (and in a purely speculative manner) pinning the event on them. And you know what? They may, ultimately, both have a point.

But after hearing the venom in the voices from both sides, and the cold and almost instantaneous impulse to spin the event into grist for an ever more ugly political debate, my thoughts turned to the parents of Christina Green, the nine year old girl killed there. How they must, if they can bring themselves to even look at their television at this point, be sickened by how quickly her tragedy was devoured by the larger media agenda: political punditry. And how cold the husband of Senator Gabrielle Giffords must feel that the same thing seems to be happening to his wife as she struggles for survivial in the aftermath of this monstrosity? Be assured of something: if she was not a senator, she would have been cast into the always hungry media oven as quickly as those others killed were.

To the "news" media, both right and left of the aisle, I say shame on you. At this moment in time no other person in the world except for the shooter knows his true motive. We know he appears to be a troubled, alienated person in general. We know he may have been snubbed (possibly unknowingly) by Giffords at a similar event. But to do what some have done, i.e. pick apart his favorite book lists looking for an "Aha!" moment to fuel one's own political agenda, is classless and sick. It cheapens the reality of this tragedy.

That's all I've got. I'm frankly to nauseated to write more about these media vultures.

-Mike Grefski