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It is absolutely remarkable that Giffords survived a shot to her head that passed through her brain.
There are two major aspects of this that bother me. The actual events and the way the media portrayed it.
It's frustrating. It's demeaning. It's demoralizing. And most of all, it's SCARY to think that there are so many people out there who think or use violence as a solution to what they perceive to be a problem. That's not a new sentiment as it has been happening for a while, but it seems to be a growing trend.
Violence solves nothing. Period.
My first tweet on the matter earlier this afternoon was "When are we as a society going to grow the hell up? When/how does shooting someone solve anything?" and that feeling/question remains.
You don't agree with the political views of someone or a party? Fine, use your freedom of speech and let it be known and especially WHY you don't agree. You have every right to do that. No one, however, has the right to take someone else's life!
How heartless does someone have to be to deliberately take the lives away of innocent people, especially a little child! It's disgusting and sickening.
Now on to the second part -- the way the media covered the story in the early aftermath.
In this day and age of a 24 hour media cycle where each of the major media organizations are trying to be the first to report the latest, many times wrong information is delivered to the mass public. How about being the first one to report credible and correct information??
For every major news source (Reuters, NPR, MSNBC, CNN to name a few) to report that they have "confirmed" news from "reliable sources" telling them that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has passed away and stick with that story for over an hour at least only to later retract that because we all find out that Giffords is actually in surgery and alive is very demeaning!
Who are these "reliable sources" and how can you report "confirmed" news that is obviously not true? To report the death of someone when that is utterly false is absolutely absurd!
You want to be the first one to break the story? Fine, then about saying that you are getting reports from sources saying so and so and that you are waiting to confirm it!
Someone tweeted earlier that "Trashing the media for not knowing Gifford's status is absurd. Imagine if Twitter had existed in the era of JFK." While that is a fair argument, you can't report CONFIRMED news when it obviously is not confirmed! Besides, I'm not just arguing about reports on twitter - I'm talking about all of the major news organizations reporting it on TV, their websites and on their social networks sites like Twitter.
Keeping the wounded in my thoughts and prayers, along with the family and friends of the deceased.
You can read a later post, an expansion, of this by clicking here.
P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.
1 comment:
Assalamu'alaikum!
I did not know about the shooting until I read your post. I haven't been keeping track with the news or watched T.V. for the past few days (outside of U.S.) but I can't believe it. I'm outraged and saddened by the incident.
I must also add that the article you linked really upset me. I can't help but notice that the attack, which I consider an act of terrorism, is being dismissed as a mental health issue. I can't believe it. Acts of killing such as this and the kinds that have been taking place all over the world can only be done by people with mental health issues. I honestly believe terrorists are people that must have something wrong in their heads to be able to do the things they do.
This is undoubtedly an act of terror.
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