Newtown to the media: You're making this nightmare worse
Denver Post 12/17/2012 08:33:24 PM MST
[quote]"Enough is enough." That's how one local woman summed up the weird and terrible media spectacle that has overtaken her once sleepy hometown.
As Newtowners gathered in shock to comfort one another after a 20-year-old resident went on a shooting spree that killed 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School, they also traded curiosities about the crush of TV trucks and notebook-toting reporters that swarmed their usually quiet community.
"I turn on the TV and Anderson Cooper was on my street," said a man to his lunch companions at the General Store on Main Street Monday afternoon.
In a tavern on Queen Street, a group clustered around a half-eaten pepperoni pizza swapped stories about how TV reporters were mispronouncing everything from their neighbors' names to the name of the town itself. (Say it how it's spelled, as though it were two words: New Town.)
But the intense international media attention on Newtown is more than an odd nuisance. It's hurting the people of Newtown at a time when their hearts are already broken beyond comprehension, they say. There are "no media" and "no press" signs taped up at various points around Newtown. At least one church strung up yellow caution tape to keep reporters at bay.
The parents of a little boy who darted past the shooter just before his teacher and classmates were slaughtered put up a sign asking people not to ring their doorbell, CNN reported. Every time it rang, they said, their six-year-old son thought the gunman had found him.
Teri Brunelli, one of the owners of Everything Newtown - a little shop that sells items like Newtown souvenirs, school supplies, key chains, and hand-knit gloves - said she has been harrassed by television crews. Even when Brunelli declined on-camera interviews, TV producers were calling her multiple times late at night to try to convince her, she said.
"Please tell them to just ease up," Brunelli said. "It happened and we're going through it. Just let it be for right now."
A shopper in the store who overheard Brunelli agreed.
"We need you to help us beg people to stop calling the victims," the woman said. "They're in mourning. Someone actually pounded on a friend's door and, literally, they were shouting, 'Someone in this town has to start talking to us, this is our story.' That's how we're being treated."
In the nearby parking lot of Holy Cow Ice Cream, a first responder who didn't want to give his name said that reporters had been rolling their eyes at him, parking on his private property, and acting as though they were entitled to be in Newtown more than he was.
Back on Main Street, where a funeral for six-year-old Jack Pinto was under way, dozens of television cameras across the street from the Honan Funeral Home recorded grieving friends and family as they came and went. It had been a similar scene at Sunday church services the day before.
As one sobbing woman left St. Rose Church after a threat forced police to evacuate grief-stricken churchgoers during Sunday mass, so many reporters began circling her that others - those who simply saw a crowd forming and didn't want to miss something - began running down the sidewalk with video cameras drawn.
For many reporters and onlookers, the thought of intensifying the trauma of an entire town wracked with loss is gut wrenching enough. But there are more treacherous concerns about the influence a media circus wields. The most oft-cited worry is that copycat killers who seek notoriety will be encouraged by the idea that if they commit a heinous crime, the entire world will pay attention.
Three full days after the shooting at Sandy Hook, news organizations are still fixated on the murders there. It's unlikely that focus will wane until the last of a long stream of funerals is over. On Sunday night at the bar My Place, a trio of locals griped to one another about the reporters who were around every corner.
"Reporters are stalking us," one of the men said. "It's like, [expletive] you. Go away. Leave us the [expletive] alone."
Newtowners say they've never seen the single-lane roads in their town so choked with traffic. The media presence is making their town unrecognizable. Only there is something horribly familiar about this new Newtown, a quality that's played out on television too many times.
"Why is this happening?" one of the three bar-goers said to his companions. "You know Columbine? That's Newtown now. When you say you're from Newtown, that's what it will be like."[/quote]
Source: [url]http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22210288/newtown-media-youre-making-this-nightmare-worse#ixzz2FWCQEm56[/url]
Fuck you media. Honestly TV news has become beyond trash what is the point in even watching it
I like how it's a media company reporting on this.
glaber
wow those reporters seem like a bunch of assholes
[quote]
The parents of a little boy who darted past the shooter just before his teacher and classmates were slaughtered put up a sign asking people not to ring their doorbell, CNN reported. Every time it rang, they said, their six-year-old son thought the gunman had found him.[/quote]
Jesus, that poor kid...
[quote]The parents of a little boy who darted past the shooter just before his teacher and classmates were slaughtered put up a sign asking people not to ring their doorbell, CNN reported. Every time it rang, they said, their six-year-old son thought the gunman had found him.[/quote]
Who the hell was ringing the bell?
[QUOTE=Crash15;38915239]Who the hell was ringing the bell?[/QUOTE]
Must have been Johnny.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_C4f7JKVfQ[/media]
In all seriousness this kind of media circus is emotionally damaging to all those affected.
[quote]
The parents of a little boy who darted past the shooter just before his teacher and classmates were slaughtered put up a sign asking people not to ring their doorbell, CNN reported. Every time it rang, they said, their six-year-old son thought the gunman had found him.
[/quote]
not to be an ass, but couldn't they have just unplugged it if it was that much of an issue?
[QUOTE=GameDev;38915534]not to be an ass, but couldn't they have just unplugged it if it was that much of an issue?[/QUOTE]
Someone knocking would probably have the same effect.
[QUOTE=GameDev;38915534]not to be an ass, but couldn't they have just unplugged it if it was that much of an issue?[/QUOTE]
People shouldn't have to open up their wall to disconnect the wiring just because the media are cunts.
[QUOTE=GameDev;38915534]not to be an ass, but couldn't they have just unplugged it if it was that much of an issue?[/QUOTE]
No. Why? Because they shouldn't be harassed by a bunch of scummy journalist shitballs that can't leave shit well enough alone.
Wow, this sounds like something a tabloid would do.
yes please just leave them the fuck alone seriously. why do they have to make such a case out of this? and at this point it seems they're doing it at the expense of all the families involved
Man. American Media is just RAMPANT. It's like they locked Critical Thinking in a cellar, water-boarded him every day for 45 years and then murdered him after Bush declared war on Iraq. This is the culmination of the evolution the media underwent during the red and sand-brown scare. What the christ is this shit even? Critical assessment and doing something else with your time than watching Bill O'Reilly set world records in stupid and smug, could have prevented this. what is the primary school curriculum? It's obviously not media analysis and sub-genres of common sense, such as logical deduction and understanding action/reaction.
TL;DR: Just ignore the attentionwhores and you might save yourselves from geting out-civilized by Africa.
[QUOTE=Bomimo;38915986]Man. American Media is just RAMPANT. It's like they locked Critical Thinking in a cellar, water-boarded him every day for 45 years and then murdered him after Bush declared war on Iraq. This is the culmination of the evolution the media underwent during the red and sand-brown scare. What the christ is this shit even? Critical assessment and doing something else with your time than watching Bill O'Reilly set world records in stupid and smug, could have prevented this. what is the primary school curriculum? It's obviously not media analysis and sub-genres of common sense, such as logical deduction and understanding action/reaction.
TL;DR: Just ignore the attentionwhores and you might save yourselves from geting out-civilized by Africa.[/QUOTE]
yeah too bad american media is responsible for basically the forefront of investigative and world-changing journalism.
I wonder how the media would react if a killer were to target them.
I know Family guy joked about this, but I'm starting to think it could happen.
The things people will do for money... [sp] and ratings apparently [/sp]
Good. The media needs to shut the fuck up about it. I'm tired of hearing about it every time I venture outside of the KSP thread. Yeah, we get it, it's tragic, condolences and blabla, but come on media. Shut the god damned fuck up about it and leave them alone. You're the reason people do this shit in the first place!
[QUOTE=Muthenfrucheir;38916754]The things people will do for money... [sp] and ratings apparently [/sp][/QUOTE]
Same difference to the TV news.
Disgusting. That's all I can even say about this.
I'm so happy that there is a place in the world where people think about something other than "LOOK MA I'M ON THE TALKYBOX!"
Think, if this happened in Texas (Regardless of how quickly the guy probably would have been shot), if they walked onto some of those properties people would be coming out with guns.
They should ban tv cameras.
[QUOTE=Muthenfrucheir;38916754]The things people will do for money... [sp] and ratings apparently [/sp][/QUOTE]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bBWBG9r2o]they make their living off the evening news
just give them something, something they can use
people love it when you lose
they love dirty laundry.[/url]
I saw on the news today that they were discussing things Adam did WHEN HE WAS IN THE SECOND GRADE. Fuck the new/media. I turned that shit off real quick. But on the light side another news channel was doing a memorial thing for the kids.
Haven't the time to find and post it now, but anyone remember when Charlie Brooker showed in Newswipe how ghoulish the press are when these things happen?
Showing sirens and having it play out like a drama means that we can expect it to happen again a few days later. And it nearly did didn't it?
[QUOTE=GameDev;38915534]not to be an ass, but couldn't they have just unplugged it if it was that much of an issue?[/QUOTE]
Rig it up to deliver an electrical shock.
[QUOTE=markg06;38919609]Rig it up to deliver an electrical shock.[/QUOTE]
Get charged with assault or something similar. They do everything to ensure they are within their rights when ruining your life and making everything around you exponentially worse.
[QUOTE=Memobot;38919505]Haven't the time to find and post it now, but anyone remember when Charlie Brooker showed in Newswipe how ghoulish the press are when these things happen?
Showing sirens and having it play out like a drama means that we can expect it to happen again a few days later. And it nearly did didn't it?[/QUOTE]
I think just about everybody does, since it's always posted in threads like this. The video should not have to be used as many times as it is. It gets rather depressing after a while.
For those of you who don't know the video being referenced (which I find hard to believe) it's this one.
[video=youtube;PezlFNTGWv4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4[/video]
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