The reason they are fixated with assessing the blame is that they know full well that they are as much or more to blame than anyone else because of the publicity they give these nuts. They begin blaming others because they want to distract attention from their own complicity.
It was interesting though that I saw Brian Williams on NBC after they released the video this guy made. It was probably the first time I’ve watched NBC in 15 years.
He actually seemed embarrassed by the fact that the media was playing into this guy’s hands by airing the video, which surprised me. But not embarrassed enough to withhold it.
“”The reason they are fixated with assessing the blame is that they know full well that they are as much or more to blame than anyone else because of the publicity they give these nuts. They begin blaming others because they want to distract attention from their own complicity.””
I agree with a caveat. I think the incident was certainly newsworthy but the 24 hour a day talking head news format has created monsters out of these stories. They overuse the “breaking news” tag and they talk many stories to death with popcorn analysis from people with partial information.
America seems addicted to the format so I suppose we are stuck with it. The line between reporting and analysis seems to be blurred beyond repair.
I did’nt need to see his video to know how screwed up he was. I don’t think there is any way to avoid copycats to things like this if like minded individuals realize they will garner the attention the story was given.
On the plus side.... maybe the over-analysis of one story prevents us from being bombarded with three more that are never reported. :/