“THIS IS SOMETHING WE SHOULD POLITICIZE”
|| By ROBERT ROMANO || If guns kill people, then perhaps so does running to the bully pulpit every time there is a shooting.
That’s what Barack Obama all but promised to do in a recent press conference in response to the recent shooting in Roseberg, Oregon.
“[T]his is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic,” Obama said in a televised statement.
Obama said he could not promise there wouldn’t be more shootings: “I hope and pray that I don’t have to come out again during my tenure as President to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as President, I can’t guarantee that. And that’s terrible to say.”
But, he added, “it can change.”
In fact, as noted by USA Today, Obama has similarly taken to the podium after the 2009 Fort Hood, Texas shooting, the 2011 shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tuscon, Ariz., the 2012 Aurora, Colo. theater shooting, the 2012 Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wis., the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting, the 2014 Fort Hood shooting, the 2014 Jewish community center shooting in Overland Park, Kan., the 2015 Methodist church shooting in Charleston, S.C., and 2015 Chatanooga, Tenn. shootings at two military installations.
But, what if all of the attention by media of these tragedies was actually creating mass hysteria – and promoting copycat shootings?
It was a possibility explored by sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, a fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, writing in 2012 in The Atlantic, “The Media Needs to Stop Inspiring Copycat Murders. Here’s How.”
The article was written after the Sandy Hook massacre. In it, Tufekci cited a study endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control that found sensationalistic reporting on teenage suicides in the 1980s actually contributed to copycat suicides. And that when the news outlets changed the way they reported the incidents, and reduced the number of reports, the suicide rate plummeted.
“As a sociologist, I am increasingly concerned that the tornado of media coverage that swirls around each such mass killing, and the acute interest in the identity and characteristics of the shooter – as well as the detailed and sensationalist reporting of the killer’s steps just before and during the shootings – may be creating a vicious cycle of copycat effects similar to those found in teen and other suicides,” wrote Tufekci.
Pretty plain. As Tufekci explained, “If you have a full story in your head, you are more likely to enact it, step by step. We also know such ‘contagion’ effects are especially strong in adolescence and young adulthood – an especially turbulent time for mental health.”
In other words, the more reporting and in effect promotion of the shootings there is, the more likely copycat shootings become. And this will be especially true for teenagers and young adults.
And who has the biggest microphone in America? Why, the President of the United States, who, as USA Today noted, has focused the spotlight on these types of shootings not once, but 12 times, usually immediately after the shooting. This in turn has helped fuel media coverage of the murders.
They call it the bully pulpit for a reason.
Obama even commented on the pattern: “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it.”
And maybe, just maybe, it is provocative. Maybe the killings are contagious.
Perhaps if these psychopaths did not get the attention they crave every single time they decide to go out in a blaze of bullets, there would be fewer incidents.
Obama can be the first to act. He doesn’t even need a bill from Congress. He just needs to shut up.
Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government. This piece (reprinted with permission) originally appeared on NetRightDaily.com.
59 comments
FITS, again, IGNORES the Giant WHITE Elephant in the room. (are you surprised?)
Obama and Holder all but put the gun in the hands of the hateful thugs they control, and told them to go out and murder WHITE POLICE officers, even knowing that the Gentle Giant was a myth, awash in Liberal lies…
And the media stood there will blood all over your hands, too.
To act as if politicizing gun control is ALL that Obama did to kill people, makes FITSNews just as low a piece of shit as Obama and the Biter-Clinger Democrat Party is…
You’re all in this rotten disaster together…You EXPLICITLY show what happens when Liberals are put in positions of absolute power..You are the Ugliest Example of FAILURE this country has EVER seen. .
Giant WHITE Elephant
Obese Caucasian Republican
GrandTango
Preach it!!!
LMAO !
Obama and the Democrats are hypocritical clowns.Add up all the shooting deaths and terrorist attack deaths and they are < 1% of the total of unborn children that have been murdered since Roe V. Wade-50 MILLION.1 every 20 seconds.
Obama needs tragedy's like this to continue to divide people by religion,race and socio economics while continuing his assault on the Constitution.The mayhem,chaos and riots that occur in the streets after these shooting, fit his agenda and goal of destroying the cultural and moral foundations of this country.
Since gun control is the answer, I think Obama should lead by example by telling his secret service to leave their guns at home from here going forward.
Instead of telling us that armed security or arming ourselves isn’t the answer, less guns is, why not follow the same rules.
Not arming Army bases seems to be working out well too.
Oh I thought you were talking about Obama having people killed like Clinton did. Such as Bubba’s bag man Ron Brown, whose body was found in the remains of that plain crash in Africa with a bullet hole in his head.
That’s right!
Fits, Gran Tango and a couple of other Right Wing nut jobs…
A GOOD COMBINATION!
“He just needs to shut up.”
If these shootings continue, Obama, as he has been in the past will be up front talking about it. And this will be an indication to the people driven to do this type of nonsense, that they will receive what they have always craved, attention.
The people that commit this type of crime are desiring the attention that never received in the day of social media, instant recognition, standing out in the crowd. Most of these people probably never see themselves as achieving much in life if they have not already. So it becomes them against the world that has not been fair to them. No friends, a total disconnect from reality, and lashing out at people they don’t even know, but will blame, none the less.
You were awfully hard on Rocky,mamatiger92 and the ‘other’ usual weirdo liberal contributors on Fits! :) LMAO! Great observations.
If he didn’t say a word about any of the mass shootings you would be complaining about that too. You want to bitch about publicity look to the media – they’re ones that talk about it non stop. In some of these recent shootings, I blame the parent(s) of the shooter who provided the guns and ignored their obvious mental issues. That “I can’t get laid” shooter in California is an exception, they tried to do something and the law failed them. And they are trying to change the mental health laws now.
It is understood that the media will be playing it up if Obama is talking about it. He tries to politicize and put himself in front everything political in the news. He likes to pretend that he is leading.
You are not very good at reading between the lines, are you? Next time, I will spell out you. It is really not that hard, but being preoccupied with defending Obama does not allow you to realize the glaring implications in my comment.
I’m trying to see your point.
Being that it is you, I understand.
So there is none. Got ya .
I think we could be friends.I had lots of em in the Marines until they found out I liked bald men.They called me ‘beenie’.You can as well.
Understood by whom? Media runs with a story for ratings not because of Obama. If it bleeds it leads, is still very much in play today. IIRC, Obama has never talked about that missing Malaysia airline but that received more air time than anything else for about a month.
Guns getting people killed might be something we should study, but Republicans have a ban on inconvenient studies that might hurt their causes.
Its not about saving lives, it’s about political agenda,
…if politicians really wanted to save us from ourselves they would have law enforcement really crack down on drunk driving, compare the numbers on innocent lives taken by drunk drivers compared to nut jobs going postal,
Hey Buck
Number of TSA agents arrested for theft since 2003 = 400 +
Number of Terrorists caught by TSA agents since 2003 = 0
Here is a travesty you can wrap your pea brain around, so do it !!
Buck Farack
Wow! Since putting TSA agents in the field, we’ve caught 400+ thieves! You should increase our budget!
Another brain dead, KoolAid drinking , lemming who cannot read and comprehend!
The TSA did NT catch thieves rocket scientist, they WERE the thieves caught stealing!
And, you probably vote, God help us, this answers the question of how the DIM O CRAPS get so many votes! SHEESH!
That joke went way over your head didn’t it kid? God DAMN GrandTango is one dumb motherfucker.
That’s not GT…so your retort actually applies to you.
I love to eat shit with rice.
Dumb – Tango it’s the same word in the dictionary.
That could be a reason. Dems get the votes because people are tired of bogus wars all the time. SHEESH !
Who created TSA?
Congress…you IGNORANT and uneducated fuck…Remember when everything went through them, instead of unilateral power, like Obama???
WMDs 0. Killed US 4878, Fish Bush.
I blame all the women who could have fucked this shooter and saved lives but didn’t. Instead, they were busy saving that pussy like they were gonna run out of it. Selfish bitches.
Unfortunately, your level of FILTH and Ignorance is running the country…. into the fucking GROUND.
No wonder kids are starving and all the government worries about is giving money to monsters who kill Babies for sport, and sell the parts to the highest bidder.
You better pray this is no Hell. But it’s pieces of shit like you that make us believe that God invented it.
How stupid.
I dream about Joe Biden swimming naked.
You coulda offered up your mangina champ.
This stupid son-of-a-bitch does not want ol’ Earl to have a gun to shoot a buck…but he will give Iran a Nuke to kill Millions of Christians…
True that! Nor, does he want people to be able to shoot one of his Muslim Terrorist kin he is letting into the Country, nor the Murderous and criminal illegals his administration releases to prey on legal, law abiding Americans.
There are more guns than people is the US now. Is anyone keeping you from buying a gun? We’ve been hearing about Obama taking everyone’s guns since 2008 – still hasn’t happened.
Fear mongering republicans. Been around since I can remember
Fox news said there is a splinter group of illegals that have a 20 killoton bomb they crossed the border with. But you worry about Iran. Makes no sense.
“I hope and pray that I don’t have to come
out again during my tenure as President to offer my condolences to
families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as
President, I can’t guarantee that.”
Well, a good start might be not authorizing drone strikes anymore, like the one you authorized that just recently blew up a “Doctors without Borders” tent.
But hey, who am I to nitpick?
Your information must be flawed, as usual.
Nothing compared to the number of Americans he will get killed by giving Iran the bomb.
History will not treat this community organizer well.
Right and you bozos keep saying history will reflect well on Bush. So far it hasn’t – He is looking more reckless by the day for his and Cheney’s actions.
Us queers got to dick together.
You do don’t you.
His legacy with be us perverts being allowed to get married.I am crying.
Starting to zero in on ya. Maybe a week, got ya.
I am a brainless cocksucker that couldn’t ZERO in on my penis if it was in my hand.I love talking to myself.
Obama’s been Zeroing in on Americans for 7 years now. Why do you think so many are suffering, and the Misery Index is off the charts?
When will this selfish and repulsive bastard let up on us?
Has this pathetic CRETIN EVER come out and preached to this country about FATHER CONTROL???
If the Democrat Party would start DEMANDING the ignorant and backward hand-out population – that keeps them in power – take care of their children, there would be no need for Criminal-loving, God-hating, immoral Democrats…and therein-in lies the problem…
Administrators at Jackson Hole High School pulled the plug on “America Day” – citing concerns that celebrating the USA would alienate some of their young people, the Jackson Hole Daily reported.
There was a school system in Tennessee that banned the American flag. There was a school district in Massachusetts that banned a day to celebrate the Land of the Free. And there was a California school district that prohibited American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/10/05/school-cancels-america-day.html?intcmp=hpbt2
confederate flag gave em a green light!
Many folks don’t seem to get that we had kajillions of guns AND schools all throughout American history, yet the spree killing thing is a relatively recent development. This just *may* be a multi-faceted issue not amenable to a simple, reductionist, sloganistic solution like “More guns!” or “Gun control!” Just sayin…
I’m seriously disturbed about the Meds angle. It seems to be a common denominator.
You’re right, that is likely at least a contributing factor, as is social media influence, news coverage, cultural changes, etc. It’s a complex stew…
Gun control isn’t about guns. It’s about control. Never take your eye off the target.
The most inept President in American History.