Decades and decades from now when hopefully Earth is more stable and historians are writing about this moment for US history a HUGE part of it needs to be how the media landscape helped get us here and one of the big signs that they would was the way they covered Columbine
I'm suicidal all the time. I have PTSD from watching my mom die via suicide, and a bunch of other trauma. I have no desire to hurt anyone.
The burden of responsibility does not hang entirely on journalists' necks, I am not unreasonable, I understand that. But y'all are partially responsible and the need for alternatives to the current media landscape is not a new problem. Like... And this is breaching containment, sooooo
And if you do work for one of the alternatives, good news, I am not talking about you. Keep fighting the good fight and I appreciate you. But also... I was not talking about you.
I know it might seem weird to tie these things together but they are related. The downplaying of racism and bigotry, the victimization of white people even in the face of something horrific, the lack of accountability both for their crimes and in the aftermath of how people responded
Sorry this is turning into a whole thing. Some people from the media did admit the coverage was messed up but the myth persists and what real accountability was there? Just like "we messed up with Trump in 2016" and proceeded to do THE EXACT SAME SHIT
Two openly bigoted assholes with incredibly stable lives decided to murder a bunch of their classmates and the media all came together and said "it makes a lot more sense that they are actually victims"
"uh these guys are borderline neo Nazis..." "No no no they're just misunderstood white men who needed people to be nicer to them"
The media landscape was nuked by private equity.