Newtown, Connecticut Elementary School Shooting

[Reach]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

From http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...311070301/1023

Robert Ebert:

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about 'Basketball Diaries'?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.


Edit: Also see

Good to see someone with a functional brain.

I don't see why media outlets can't be banned from mentioning any names of people involved in these types of crimes, displaying their pictures, or talking about any of their life events etc.

I suppose you could turn the argument full circle and blame everyone, because it's obvious that people are inherently interested in morbid shit like this, whether we want to admit it or not.

But I don't agree with exploiting this for profit. At least we can do something about censoring the media and hopefully preventing acts like this from happening again and escalating to probably even greater extremes. It seems inevitable at this point, if coverage continues the way it does. Attempting to beef security or other nonsense fails to address the issue and is analogous to trying to bandage a punctured jugular.

[DossarLX ODI]

foxfire, that goes into correlation =/= causation. There was bullshit about Marilyn Manson being blamed for the Columbine shooting because of his heavy rock and roll music.

When it comes to looking for something or someone to blame, yes, people can get retarded.

[AlexDest]

Yeah, I have no words for this. This is just completely awful.

My condolences go out to the families having to go through with this... Christmas immediately sucks this year.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by Reach

I suppose you could turn the argument full circle and blame everyone, because it's obvious that people are inherently interested in morbid shit like this, whether we want to admit it or not.

I was thinking of that paradox... when you have people who say they don't want to hear about something, see/talk about it, but then it appears on the news all the time because they know it's what gets attention.

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

foxfire, that goes into correlation =/= causation. There was bullshit about Marilyn Manson being blamed for the Columbine shooting because of his heavy rock and roll music.

When it comes to looking for something or someone to blame, yes, people can get retarded.

[DragonIIDX]

Shooting kids and teachers at an elementary school? Then commits suicide after? Just because you think your life is messed up, don't take it out on little kids and then cowardly killing yourself after. Right before Christmas too the bastard. I don't want to live on this planet anymore...

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Originally Posted by Charu

"Oh great, lets divert our attention and blame video games!" ~Everyone who can't think for themselves

The factors leading people to do such things are endless. I wouldn't say that people can't think for themselves if they think video games are the cause.

Let's face it, they certainly contribute.

But to leave it to just video games is horse shit and mindless.

Here's why:

In America especially, we are shown violent images every day. And it's considered "fine". In our American media, a naked human form is worse than murdering a person by forcing their body to inhabit battery acid till they dissolve and die. Movies are rated R for the sexuality more times than the violence.

Someone else, who I can't be bothered to quote, said that we all subconsciously like violence, and I'm forced to agree with that statement. I enjoy watching movies or anime even where there are violent scenes.

Now I'm not saying it's a reason for us to go shoot up schools. Please don't take that the wrong way. These people sicken me. Especially when it's children who have no idea that they're alive yet.

[Ohaider]

meaningless disoriented coward
can't express in words how i feel about this

[top]

government conspiracy theories etc.

[adlp]

im betting this massacre is going to be one of those historical events where people will ask in a couple years, "where were you during the Newtown Massacre?"

[Choofers]

I'm not sure what to think about Middie's post.

welp


So let's change the subject. The children died because God wasn't a part of the school
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2303792.html

[noname219]

Video games can contribute if it's misinterpreted by someone who is having troubles in his life. But, they have way less impact than social pressure, unstable family conditions or academic stress because those affects directly your lifestyle.

@ Reincarnate : really interesting video you posted earlier (the one with the forensic psychiatrist - that guy is right full on, he knows his stuff).

Also, about that music argument :

[top]

Originally Posted by Choofers

I'm not sure what to think about Middie's post.

welp


So let's change the subject. The children died because God wasn't a part of the school
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2303792.html

why would you willingly spur a religious debate in an already argumentative thread?

[Choofers]

because it's funny and totally delusional and no one is going to take this guy seriously anyway

[top]

thumbs up

[Crashfan3]

Originally Posted by Choofers

So let's change the subject. The children died because God wasn't a part of the school
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2303792.html

Obviously it's because god is a gentleman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=is2x7QTZ8AI

edit: behold, everyone, the response we all expected!: http://blogs.sparenot.com/godsmacks/...e-destruction/ #GodSentTheShooter

[adlp]

cant stand huckabee

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Xx{Midnight}xX

The factors leading people to do such things are endless. I wouldn't say that people can't think for themselves if they think video games are the cause.

Let's face it, they certainly contribute.

But to leave it to just video games is horse shit and mindless.

Here's why:

In America especially, we are shown violent images every day. And it's considered "fine". In our American media, a naked human form is worse than murdering a person by forcing their body to inhabit battery acid till they dissolve and die. Movies are rated R for the sexuality more times than the violence.

Someone else, who I can't be bothered to quote, said that we all subconsciously like violence, and I'm forced to agree with that statement. I enjoy watching movies or anime even where there are violent scenes.

Now I'm not saying it's a reason for us to go shoot up schools. Please don't take that the wrong way. These people sicken me. Especially when it's children who have no idea that they're alive yet.

I sincerely doubt they contribute all that much. No studies support that claim, and the ones that do have been found problematic. Even SCOTUS has made it pretty clear:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/08-1448.pdf

[Ambiguous proof will not suffice. The State’s evidence is not compelling. California relies primarily on the research of Dr. Craig Anderson and a few other research psychologists whose studies purport to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children.

These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively (which would at least be a beginning). Instead, “[n]early all of the research is based on correlation, not evidence of causation, and most of the studies suffer from significant, admitted flaws in methodology.”

They show at best some correlation between exposure to violent entertainment and minuscule real-world effects, such as children’s feeling more aggressive or making louder noises in the few minutes after playing a violent game than after playing a nonviolent game.

Even taking for granted Dr. Anderson’s conclusions that violent video games produce some effect on children’s feelings of aggression, those effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media. In his testimony in a similar lawsuit, Dr. Anderson admitted that the “effect sizes” of children’s exposure to violent video games are “about the same” as that produced by their exposure to violence on television. And he admits that the same effects have been found when children watch cartoons starring Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner, or when they play video games like Sonic the Hedgehog that are rated “E” (appropriate for all ages), or even when they "view a picture of a gun."]

[foxfire667]

Originally Posted by Choofers

So let's change the subject. The children died because God wasn't a part of the school
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2303792.html

Originally Posted by the article

Huckabee said on Fox News.

I know they aren't exactly the most credible news network, but it really is beginning to seem as if every time I read something hilariously silly, Fox news is always involved. What's that, racist sandwiches? We'll get right on that news worthy material.

[Reincarnate]

Fox isn't exactly news