The first-day coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings was, compared to most similar events, surprisingly restrained. CNN was unbearably repetitive. I couldn’t see more than five minutes at a time, due to impatience, but wasn’t it wonderful that the cable news station of excess kept guesswork and pseudo-psycho-pap about the shooter to a minimum. But who would’ve guessed a TV commercial would display the crux of the event with unintended irony?
Soon I hope prominent people will realize that lots of people likely made the same decision as me: Turn to news.google or news.yahoo. I tried CNN’s kid sister Headline News and still couldn’t get a summary-of-what-is-known within a few minutes. That is not too much to ask. But click online, and there it is. It’s daytime on a workday, and “Mr. and Mrs. America” first want a capsule, not the 14th-not-quite-eye-witness account.
News is online. It’s written out with a few photos. A brief video, sure. The latest snapshot for “all the ships at sea” to learn what’s what — until we can get all of the confirmed details in the most efficient form: the next morning’s newspaper.
Because My Beloved learned of the Blacksburg massacre late in the afternoon, we skimmed channels after dinner. Larry King’s top-of-the-hour promised calm reporting. For once he was restrained. Carefully selected live interviews of student bystanders, as well as with Candice DeLong, a retired FBI specialist on mass slayings, and TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw.
DeLong’s most interesting point was that such crimes probably cannot be prevented but that in countries that restrict gun ownership, the slayings and injuries are fewer: Knives don’t have the range.
King directed McGraw to discuss grief and shock, especially delayed reactions, which he did with clarity and an eye toward the post-adolescent age group affected. Then McGraw figuratively tipped his Texan machismo hat at how the problem was the crazy guy and not gun ownership. But he opined that the dramatic increase in violence in entertainment — TV, movies and particularly video games — deadens revulsion in youngsters and may teach permissiveness toward, oh, physical problem-solving.
The commercial that followed was a vividly colored cartoon, showing robot-like creatures blasting ray-guns at one-another. The guns did hit and opposing robots shattered, spraying, what, motor oil?
The badly timed spot promoted Westwood College, which apparently is a multi-state outfit that also offers correspondence courses via the Internet, which we are to call “distance learning.” I could not find the commercial or any reference to it online or I’d link to it here.
The patronizing shoot-em-up animation is aimed at teen-agers. It might have been a CNN commercial or placed by the area cable TV company. That doesn’t matter.
While Virginia Tech saddened me, Westwood “College” blew me away. -30-
