Thoughts On Aurora

Regular reader Kit asked:

The Aurora shooting:

-Some are saying WB should cancel theatre showings because of the shooting. What do you think?

I say they shouldn't.

Society lately has become obsessed by grief in recent years. Whenever there's a tragedy people start demanding that something or other be stopped, censored, or cancelled in the name of "sensitivity."

Now the events in Aurora, where a man who is either deranged, evil, or more likely both, murdered 12 people, wounded dozens of others at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises is more than tragedy, it's an atrocity.

We should all offer our condolences and prayers for the victims, their families, and loved ones.

But we can't just shut everything down because of such a tragic event. It serves no purpose other than to let the people who demand these shutdowns make a show of their "sensitivity."

Going to the movies, even The Dark Knight Rises, is not an insult to the victims.

What going to the movies is is a declaration that we are not going to let the maniacs of the world and the fear they thrive on control our lives.

Going to the movies is one of the few great communal events that people of all races, religions, and cultures can enjoy together in our increasingly interconnected, but also increasingly insular world.

We cannot permit people like the maniac in Aurora, who I will not name, because he gets enough attention already, to drive us even further into our own private little bubbles out of fear.

Because if we do, then the bastards have won.

Here's his next question:

-What should happen to this guy: LINK

I think a solid ass-whupping is appropriate.

If you don't feel like clicking the link, the story's about a guy who does stuff for Howard Stern's show prank calling a Denver TV station posing as a cop.

He says he does these pranks to illustrate how poorly managed the media is during times of crisis.

Well, guess what, we don't need a prank phone call to illustrate that. Especially when we have a reporter for the ABC Network suggesting that an innocent man was behind the shootings because he had a similar name and belonged to the Tea Party.

Here was an experienced senior journalist for a major TV news organization refusing to make the one phone call or Google search he needed to make to check his facts. He saw a name, saw a possible link to an organization that he is politically opposed to, made an assumption and ran with it on live television.

If that doesn't tell you that the whole media apparatus is deeply broken, a crank phone call isn't going to get it through your skull.