This may or may not be instigated by Milo Yiannopoulos’s present “standard response to a request for comment.”
But it happens. It happens lots of different places. Let’s have a general thread.
Especially because, Hitler did it and Putin does it. Killing reporters is a thing in other countries with nasty authoritarian rule. And the present occupant occupying the Oval Office seems to idolize all those scoundrels. It is going to be a thing in the USA now, too.
But this isn’t just a USA thread. We don’t have the majority of journalist killings yet.
Until we know better, I’m assuming that this is just some run-of-the-mill asshole with a grudge against this particular paper or someone that worked there and that the shooting was done without political motive. If it turns out otherwise, I’ll be back and let fly with the invective but, in the meantime let us do as Mr. Garabaldi suggested and wait for the truth to come out, because sooner or later it always does.
When authoritarians or organized criminals assassinate journalists, there’s a signature or some kind - a calling card. They want other journalists and the public to ‘get it’. I think this particular case was a guy with psychotic tendencies, a powder keg with an unlit fuse for years.
Looks like this wasn’t politically or religiously motivated. But foolsguinea is right: too often it is.
The public can do much to send a signal that silence isn’t what you get when you shoot the messenger.
But that turns offenders into victims, martyrs even (for some). No, thanks. I’d rather have those liars off the air, even if only for a little while. [Yeah, I know, but it happens; blowhards tend to misbehave in more than one way.]
The man had a long-standing (6+ years) grudge against this paper, but only felt emboldened to go on his rampage after Milo made his comment and four days after Dotard called the Press the “enemy of the people.”
The existence of a pre-existing grudge does not necessarily exonerate Milo/Donald in this. The fact that police forces in NY, LA, etc were dispatched to newsrooms immediately upon hearing this news indicates that there are official concerns that the Right’s toxic language is inflaming people like this.
“NYPD deploys counterterrorism teams to protect media outlets following Maryland shooting” https://twitter.com/i/events/1012472688051277824
Hmmm, why was it only now that he got the idea it might be acceptably heroic to go shoot them? What, what could have happened in the news to make him think this?
Meanwhile the NRA’s butt boy Rubio took the opportunity to whine about civility again…
During an interview with Capital Gazette writer Selene San Felice, who survived the shooting by hiding under a desk, San Felice said of Donald Trump:
“I’m going to need more than a couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers because our whole lives have been shattered,” she added. “Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a fuck about them if there’s nothing else.”
… prompting Rubio—who didn’t have one word to say about the latest mass killing in America, this one targeting a profession that is regularly demonized by Donald Trump and the Republican Party—to sob:
“Sign of our times. The F word is now routinely used in news stories, tweets, etc. It’s not even F*** anymore. Who made that decision?”
Fuck you Rubio, with an cactus, then a pineapple, and then a chainsaw covered in habanero juice.
I like the first comment on Rubio’s tweet: “I know. It was just wild when I started seeing the media use the word pussy without bleeping it or anything. God, how did that even happen? Somebody must have said it in such a blunt, unavoidable way that the media had to report it in full, but who?”
That’s actually a very common response here to any attack anywhere in the world. If someone attacks a train in Barcelona, more police to the trains. If someone attacks a stadium in Tokyo, more police to the stadiums, and so forth. People are very skittish and we spook very easily. This is more to assuage some fears rather than deal with any credible threat.
That said, I agree that we should not exonerate the loofah-faced shit gibbon (LFSG) or that other piece of trash. For all we know, they could have been the tipping point. Or he might have done it anyway…it’s not like workplace shootings by disgruntled whomevers never occurred before LFSG.
