[sinsofsolarempirefan]

The way I see it, the media is actually one of the biggest parts of the problem. These deranged lunatics are at heart pathetic attention seekers seeking herostratic fame to convince themselves that their existence meant something, aided by the media, which positively orgasms over every pornographic detail over both the event itself and the life of its perpetrator. They would do better to impose a damnatio memoriae on the person and refuse to mention his name or anything about his life, lest a future nutjob look to him for inspiration for his own atrocity. They would never do this of course, stories like this shift a lot of copy with a prurient public that loves to pour over stories like this. What the media do is not just in poor taste, it is actively dangerous...

[Sherman Logan]

You are quite correct of course.

However, the media should not be blamed for giving the public what it wants.

When somebody does something like this, people not unreasonably want to know why, so the killer is made a celebrity while everyone who ever knew him is interviewed for possible insight.

If media outlet A chooses not to cover the story, they will lose viewers (and money) to media outlet B. So no outlet is going to do that.

[Sherman Logan]

I’ve been thinking about your post and believe you may have hit on something here.

Our society in past decades has been glorifying fame more and more. People are now famous and admired for being famous, most notably perhaps the Kardashian family.

Many movies now end not with riding off into the sunset, but with the hero(es) being applauded by a crowd.

People are willing to do the most insane and degrading things to become famous and get on TV.

In a society that values celebrity over almost everything else, is it particularly surprising that some will take this particular route to instant fame?