Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Frustrated with the NYT and the Media Generally

In the wake of the recent massacre at Virginia Tech, the New York Times (and other media outlets) are desperately looking for "reasons" why someone might perpetrate the murder of over 30 people. They are looking for these answers in the sparse moments between the hours of exploitation of the victims and their families. Welcome to the Big Carnival. At least Jack Shafer is willing to point out how the press is going overboard. NBC and ABC actually did Facebook solicitations for interviews, talk about tacky.

The Times streaming blog regarding the Virginia Tech murders has recently revealed that the perpetrator imitated an image from the Korean film Oldboy, which we all know no "right minded" individual could enjoy.

I was so happy to hear that I am a "cult-film aficionados for whom distinctions between high art and low are unknown, unrecognized and certainly unwelcome." Ignore the fact that I have, unlike most modern critics, read my Hegel, Kant, and Schiller. Ignore that I often have discussions about the nature of morality and the importance of mores in maintaining the social contract.

I wish the media would spend more time reporting the facts instead of exploiting a situation for ratings. I also wish that someone, just one, would talk about the difference between correlation and causation to the public. Yes, mentally unbalanced people like violent movies/games/comics, but so do a lot of normal people.

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