OK, if this is the case, where is the...
Posted on 10/29/2002 12:39:36 PM PST by NorCoGOP
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Since the beginning of October the Washington, D.C., area has cowered in fear of a sniper who struck randomly and seemed to kill indiscriminatly.
This Tuesday morning papers from coast to coast, as well as broadcast media outlets, splashed the newest attack in the choice spots from top of the hour to top of the page.
By Thursday morning, police had arrested John Allen Muhammad, 41, an Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War who qualified as an expert marksman in the service, and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, a Jamaican citizen, on suspicion of the crimes.
So far ballistics have come back connecting the rifle found in the vehicle owned by Muhammad to the shootings on the east coast.
Like always, the media has been right on hand, reporting minute by minute on any and all updates and speculating on who could be committing these crimes.
Wednesday, the media focused their collective attention on a stump being dug up in the yard of a person of interest an entire nation away.
In fact, the media has been so close to the event, they seem to be tipping off the sniper to every advantage the police have.
Already the media are coming up with obscure motives to explain the attacks, such as terrorist sympathy.
But before the capture the media reported police speculation that the sniper must be busy during the weekend and therefore unable to issue his attacks at that time.
The sniper struck that weekend.
When it was said that the sniper seemed to avoid shooting children, within days a child was in the hospital, a victim of the same attacker that plagued only adults up to that time.
When a geographical profile was discussed about the area the sniper was most comfortable "hunting" in, he or she abruptly moved outside the "profiled" area.
Profilers agree that people like the sniper consider themselves to be smarter than the rest of the world, but what good is being more intelligent than everyone else if they don't know you are doing it?
So the person or persons responsible for the crimes that have made people who live in the area loathe to leave their homes have begun leaving messages, and the police used the media to relay messages back and forth to the attacker.
Although freedom of speech and the public's right to know are both tenets of journalism that I personally hold near and dear, I also believe in overcoverage of an event.
I think it would be safe to say that with all the competition in the media outlets trying to outscoop each other, they are losing a very human element from the equation.
Especially when press conferences are called to let interested media watchers know that there was nothing to tell them.
Maybe the media's quest to inform the public and promote freedom of speech are causing them to err on the side of excess, and give this sniper the power he or she craves.
It's pretty safe to say that with the frenzy over every tiny aspect of the case being broadcast all over the nation the killer was even more glued to the television screen in hopes to discover what mistakes were made and how to correct them for next time.
In a world of instant access people don't just feel they have the right to know, they feel they have the right to know five minutes ago.
Unfortunately this intense interest seemed to be frustrating police as they worked on the case and sent an abundance of images to a gleeful criminal who seemed to thrive off the attention.
And although it is important for people to scrutinize those in authority to make sure that everything is done correctly and thoroughly, perhaps it's time we backed off and waited for new developments to occur instead of helping to create them.
Huh...I thought he was from the Religion of Piece(s)....guess I was wrong, since it isn't reported here......blech...
It figures the writer would zero in on the only bit of speculation by the media that is probably correct.
Whether you blew it or not, all I can say is: WHOOOOP!!GIG'EM!!!
In Aggie English, that means "Roger that," "I'm with you", etc.
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