by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
April 22, 2007
A single act of violent crime is not news. Ever. Period. I can see giving the Virginia Tech story about 60 seconds, because it was the deadliest something-something in American history. And I'll give you another two minutes to mention that our nations' policies on gun control and mental health lead to a more dysfunctional and violent society. Anything more than that is exploitation, pure and simple.
How many people died on Monday, April 16 because our government won't treat health care as a basic human right? How many people died in preventable workplace accidents? Or from unsafe consumer products? Or from cancer caused by industrial pollution? I don't have those numbers, but in every single case, it's damn sure more than thirty. Ten times that many people were killed on the Saturday just two days before the VT massacre, as a result of America's unnecessary, lie-based war in Iraq.
All these deaths are real news stories, because they are caused by fixable problems in American policy and politics. But these stories don't come with the same violence, pathos, and general sexiness of a crazed lone gunman on a rampage.
Yes, we are shocked and saddened by this story. We are shocked and saddened that even some of our favorite, most progressive news sources took precious hours away from actual news reporting last week, to wallow in this sensationalist muck.
© by the author.
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I can see giving the Virginia Tech story about 60 seconds, because it was the deadliest something-
something in American history.
And I'll give you another two minutes to mention that our nations' policies on gun control and mental health lead to a more dysfunctional and violent society.
Anything more than that is exploitation, pure and simple.
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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