Alex Teves’ father offered a bold challenge to Anderson Cooper on CNN last night. He challenged CNN, Fox News and every other media outlet to ignore “the coward” and report only that the shooter had been apprehended.
Tom Teves wants us to remember his son and all the other victims instead. He wants us to remember the names of the victims and make them famous instead of the man who killed them. He points out that none of us remember the names of the victims in other massacres, except Gabby Giffords.
Teves uses an analogy to point out how the media may be able to help prevent some of these tragedies. He asked Cooper if he remembered a time when people would bust through barriers to streak or do crazy things on the field at sporting events, because these stunts were shown on TV. When the networks all agreed to stop showing them, they virtually stopped.
Alex Teves’ father is challenging all media outlets to do the same. To agree to stop covering the shooter, to stop showing his face, to stop saying his name, and to stop talking about him. Cooper pointed out that it is well-known in Aurora that the community does not appreciate the attention being aimed at the killer instead of those innocents whose lives were cut short.
Open Discussion:
Should media outlets band together to prevent his name from living on in history?
Would a total blackout of shooter information help prevent others from committing acts like this? Do you think infamy is part of the appeal to those who commit these sorts of mass murders?
Is there any healing or educational benefit to publicizing the shooter’s name and/or face?
YES! By publicizing information on these hideous idiots the media encourages more of these shootings. We need to label those who kill like this is “not worthy of being named” and never, ever, publicize their names and backgrounds. Now.
I turn the channel and ignore posts about the topic not because I’m cold but cause,I don’t want to know a damn thing about the guy. Rip lost souls
Agreed. I just put a post up a few minutes ago that runs along the lines of what you say here.
I say that instead of writing/blogging/reporting about what the killer did we instead frame it in the form of what happened to the victims.
We shouldn’t let the memory of one killer live on forever while the memory of the 12 victims fade away only to come back on the occasional anniversary of the event.
Simply put, yes. The more publicity each spree killer gets, the more it encourages someone out there to become the next one and get their face all over the papers. I guess a blackout of all information about the killer would be impossible, but I wish the media would be more responsible and give him as little publicitly as possible, and certainly no more than they give to the victims. That wouldn’t stop similar events from happening in future, but it may make them slightly less likely. Still, as long as the media are driven by sales and page views,… Read more »
I agree, both that it would be nice if it did happen, and that it never will (on any significant scale) for market reasons. I also think that if all or most media did agree on blacking out personally identifiable info in cases like this, there would be a public uproar about “hiding something” and such. Nobody gives a crap if some untelevised streaker is never shown or identified, but a mass murderer is hard to gloss over. For that matter, if the bad deed is bad enough to be catalogued as a part of history, it would seem like… Read more »
@ Leia: It’s not about “sticking your fingers in your ears” it’s about people choosing not to give that guy notoriety for this heinous act. Your “culture” seems to get some sick pleasure watching guys like this and when the media shows it over and over you all “jump on the collective bandwagon” like a mob who watches a lynching. For the first time in decades the media is acting responsibly and with empathy for the Survivors and Families of those who were killed. Why the hell do you need to know anything about this guy? It’s NOT going to… Read more »
YES!!! we don’t need to give him fame, his name should be forgotten and the victims should be remembered!
Stop showing his picture. stop using his name.
We don’t care about hin high school pic, or camp video, it’s not going to help us understand him.
Ella, I think you’re right. I think we can call him “the Aurora shooter” when necessary. I do think it’s important to people to know when he has a hearing and when he goes to trial what the verdict will be, because due to the intimate nature of our 24 hour news cycle, we are so invested with these victims and survivors and we feel a need to know what the outcome will be. Other than that, we need to just let the authorities do what they need to do as far as research and try not to support shows… Read more »
How can you ignore sociopaths like him? Who among us will be the next one? That is naive to put your fingers in your ears and to cover your eyes and sing “La la la!” and hope that that will make sick people like this go away….If anything, someone must have had some clue about how sick and twisted and maladaptive he was….We need to look harder at people who walk amongst us….Who will shoot or attack us next?
Show him or not he’s gonna rot in prison for the rest of his life. I hope he doesn’t get the death (if Colorado does death) penalty if he wanted to be famous he should live with the consequences.