Two days ago, a teenager walked into a shopping mall in Salt Lake City Utah, pulls out a shotgun, kills five people and puts four more in critical condition before being gunned down by an off-duty police officer. Not much to debate there, but what is interesting is what happened next - silence.
I’ve seen nothing (or next to nothing) on the national news web pages, here, or even on the national news. I was particularly surprised that it isn’t making the rounds in political circles because the killer was Moslem. You’d think the usual suspects would at least be trying to demonize him for that.
I guess my question is about how the national media determines what is newsworthy and what isn’t. I’ve lived through earthquakes, political scandals, and murders that didn’t make a blip on the national radar while Anna Nicole Smith and the weather in upstate NY is given hourly updates. (My heart goes out to the people in upstate New York, but a couple of weeks ago it was 30 below here, with people trapped in their homes due to snow, and it was never mentioned anywhere.)
So, two questions - how is what becomes national news decided? and Is there a regional bias?
I saw the cop who took him out on two different programs today. CNN interviewed him (and his wife) and later The Today Show had him. He doesn’t think he’s a hero, everyone else does, done deal. They’re still trying to figure out the shooter’s motive. As far as I know, no one has determined that it was religious in nature.
I think we’re becoming desensitized about this sort of incident. I mean, we had another one in Philly on the same day, fercrissakes. Yes, it’s horrible…yes, we wonder if we’re all going to hell in a handbasket. But it sure starts to feel like a day in the life after a while.
It was a headline on msn.com yesterday, and I heard a story about it on the radio. I don’t think much has been made about his being Muslim because it hasn’t been shown it’s relevant yet, and it would be inappropriate to comment on it until then. You didn’t hear much about Timothy McVeigh being Catholic or Dylan Klebold being Jewish.
I’m not sure where our news services differ, but I havce seen pretty constant coverage of the incident. (I don’t watch a lot of TV news, but I picked it up on radio and internet sources.)
Was he? I have seen him identified, repeatedly, as a “Bosnian immigrant.” Certainly, Sulejmen could be a Muslim name (and the xenophobic blogs and the World Net Daily are all over the claimed link). (Although, it could also be simply a name that became common in Bosnia due to the prevalence of a large muslim population.)
What I have seen, so far, have been a number of comments that the police and his family have no idea what prompted his actions. Perhaps the news sources are waiting for actual information before they begin waving it about? (I know, that does not strike me as plausible, either.) Given that he did not display any emotion, he made no statements, he left behind no (reported) notes, and he dressed more like Harris and Klebold than like how people imagine Mohamed Atta dressed, maybe there is simply enough confusion and mystery to hold off reporting information that will need to be retracted.
It’s big news here. I’m more than a little surprised that it took so long to name the shooter. Until yesterday afternoon all the info I had was that he was 18 years old, white and wore a trench coat, carried a backpack and used a shotgun.
This is such a sad waste of life.
I’ve seen it on the national news, on the Web, and it made the front page in today’s Boston Globe – there’s plenty of coverage (unlike Hofman, the Salt Lake Bombings, and the Documents Candal of a quarter century ago, which barely made a blip outside Utah).
Unfortunately, the initial reports said it took place at “College Square Mall”, which I’d never heard of, so I figured it must be some new shopping center that sprung up near the U of U since I left. Then I see on the 'Net yestyerday that it was Trolley Square Mall! The news guy obviously hadn’t heard it right, and made an unforgiveable error in reporting.
trolley Square! Heck, I used to live a block and a half from there! I was there all the time (It had the highest density of movie theaters in the entire state, several restaurants, and the best Wine store in Utah – no small thing in that LDS-run place). Nasty place for a shooting, considering all the foot traffic (even out-of-towners go there – it’s a big tourist draw). The one fortunate thing is that it has relatively short and narrow corridors – not large and wide and long open areas or hallways. Once someone starts opening up in there, it’s relatively easy to get out of the line of fire. Evenm so, five dead and several wounded is scary stuff.
Which makes you wonder why he chose that particular location. If I wanted to kill as many people as possible, I would pick a location where I had a clear shot at numerous persons and the victims couldn’t escape easily by ducking around a corner.
I’m having trouble finding a source that identifies him as Muslim. Could you share a link?
And if he was Muslim, he doesn’t look like “one of those Muslims”. People tend to have one image in mind when they hear the word “Muslim”, and it usually doesn’t look African or European. (note: being a brown person myself, I can tell you that you’d be shocked at how many people confuse Middle Easterners with Indians, and use the terms “Muslim” and “Arab” interchangeably.)
Anyway, that’s a whole 'nother thing, but if the shooter does turn out to be Muslim, I wonder if the news coverage would have been much different if he looked like people’s idea of a “Muslim”?
If it would have happened during a dead news period, it would be all over the place. I’ve seen coverage of it on the morning shows, but it seems to be another ‘random wacko shoots up the place’ type coverage. It is competing with celebrity news such as Anna Nicole and the Grammys, weather stories such as the blizzards and the New Orleans tornadoes, and the usual network self whoring of American Idol and other plugs for ratings.
He was a Bosnian refugee and a legal immigrant, according to the news I saw. The Stars & Stripes Pacific print edition reported the issue. Of course, Deseret Morning News reported it online.
I too was thinking the same thing in that his religion might not have been played up as much because he doesn’t look “swarthy” and dark like many people assume all Muslims are.
It even made the tv news here in Japan. The camera shot was set up from where I used to park for my part time job. Trolley Square was made into a shopping center when I was a child, and we used to walk there from my house. My sister, my brother and I have had about eight different jobs there while we were growing up.
I think it’s nice that his religion hasn’t been made an issue. Now if they find evidence that it is relevent, then that would be newsworthy.