12/07/2007 02:09

539 The Eternal Damnation of Computers

It amazes me what the media will cherry-pick out of a story to use as the headline. In particular, I'm talking about the present version of the Robert Hawkins Omaha shooting story on CNN. The headline as of the time of this posting reads, "Computers may yield clues about mall shooter." The article has 31 sentences, only one mentions computers, but CNN has made a conscious choice to sensationalize the "OMG HoLY CYBER FUCK EMO KIDS" aspect. "There was an opportunity for intervention" or "There were arguments amongst our friends" would have been equally misdirecting headlines, and both of those are exact quotes from the article, but certainly they're far less inflammatory or technologically sexy. I suppose it's just easier to assume that computers are to blame for every homicidal outrage that takes place these days. The shooter was 19? Oh, well then, he must have learned it all online and plotted it with his MySpace friends, so we should probably charge all of them with obstruction of justice and failure to report a conspiracy. Hello, American media. Human beings among us commit all sorts of fucked up acts on a daily basis. We're a wired society, and that means that many of those people who are responsible for various atrocities will happen to be participants in the online community. The guy who shot a convenience store clerk to death yesterday probably likes collaborating with his friends on Facebook, but that doesn't mean the internet made him do it. The random chick who got pulled over for a DUI at Hacks Cross and Winchester likes to drink beer, but the fact that she makes daily contributions to the forums at commercialappeal.com doesn't make them liable for her actions. I have no doubt that before the weekend is over, there will be all sorts of "evidence" that the shooter had a MySpace page, played video games, and liked to eat macaroni and cheese. Wait, scratch that last part, normal people like to eat macaroni and cheese. You should only be in imminent fear for your life if your child is on MySpace and plays video games and frequents the local shopping mall. This 31-sentence article currently consists of 28 distinct paragraphs (CNN frequently reworks their articles, so this may change). I don't know whether this is a page-lengthening technique, or what, but it's anything but traditional journalism. I'm not sure where these folks learned to write, but it certainly didn't involve the MLS handbook. Disappointment all around in CNN.