No fuel ignites action any faster than horrific news.
Consider world reaction to these headlines: Nazis blitz London. President Kennedy assassinated. Challenger explodes. Federal building bombed in Oklahoma City. Pope shot. Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil. Terrorists attack World Trade Center. Allies invade Iraq.
The deeper the public’s angst in response to dark developments, whether local or global, the more powerful the demand for consequences and solutions. Laid in the hands of policymakers and other authorities, a provoked public’s suffering writes quite a petition for action.
All of that depends, however, on the extent to which the public is informed. Serving that need depends first on whether the public wants to be informed, and how well the news media respond.
We’re seeing these and other forces at work in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy involving the worst mass shooting by an individual in U.S. history.
On Monday, April 16, a gunman killed 32 students and faculty members before taking his life. The dominant questions first centered on who could do such a thing and why. The media dug for answers while pulling together profiles of the victims and addressing other immediate issues.
When authorities verified the gunman’s identity as VT student Cho Seung Hui, news outlets reported accordingly. They also added as many supplementary details as possible to give the public better answers to “who” and “why.”
By Wednesday night and in Thursday morning’s editions, the public received a troubling — even sickening — perspective on Cho, largely from reporting based on a self-made, self-absorbed, ranting video that Cho had mailed to NBC News on that Monday.
In North America, that story overshadowed everything else happening and consequently formed the basis for a Page 1 centerpiece in the Star-Telegram that was built around a five-column image taken from Cho’s videotape — an image of him holding handguns and grimacing with outrage.
While journalists pressed harder into related issues and more victim- and process-focused coverage, readers finally had answers to “who” and “why.”
Understandably, some readers’ near-instant reaction to the Page 1 report involved angrily lashing out at the attention given to Cho, rather than the victims and families who were covered on inside pages.
“How dare you,” one reader said. Another protested: “I feel victimized by your paper.” In phone calls, e-mails and letters to the editor, others accused the Star-Telegram of crassly playing into Cho’s hands.
The reaction was reminiscent of the response to the capture of extremist Timothy McVeigh in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing — an unspeakable act that occurred April 19, 1995, killing 168 men, women and children.
Some readers, their sensibilities already shocked, wanted softened news reports. Yet facts eventually must speak for themselves, and though some journalists might present those facts as tastefully as possible, ultimately there is no way to fully cushion reality’s core impact.
Whether coverage has involved Cho, McVeigh or other lunatics’ attacks on innocent people — from serial killers such as Ted Bundy to maniacs such as Adolf Hitler — there is no escape either in the news of the day or in credible history books from details about monsters.
Nor should there be, if civilization cares to learn from painful reality.
Cable news’ coverage of Cho notwithstanding, perhaps some of those readers who didn’t protest the Star-Telegram’s Page 1 centerpiece wanted the value of information presented on a scale that reflected the public’s interest.
Although experience verifies that there are downsides of publishing such detail (it can inspire copycats, fulfill the perpetrator’s objectives or frighten people), those concerns are outweighed in the long run by the higher power of such information.
Issues emerge and debate follows along with constructive thought, self-examination and corrective action. Authorities’ investigation of the Virginia Tech tragedy is one product of such reaction.
One can hope that a better world will emerge from any tragedy. But so much of that depends on a well-informed and highly provoked public, not a sheltered society.
