Current Events > is this quote of Roger Ebert about media making columbine real or fake?

(+) Yeah! (+)

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facebook been sharing it

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huh

guess it is real

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about Basketball Diaries?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

Review of Elephant (7 November 2003)

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/elephant-2003
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http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/the-newtown-killings

Looks like a yes
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leverageblargh posted...

I believe Marilyn Manson said pretty much the same thing when they were trying to use his music as a scapegoat

interesting lol
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It's not just a real quote, it's supported by a lot of professional psychologists / sociologists.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

It's not just a real quote, it's supported by a lot of professional psychologists / sociologists.

got a citation of this?
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darkphoenix181 posted...

ChromaticAngel posted...

It's not just a real quote, it's supported by a lot of professional psychologists / sociologists.

got a citation of this?

Yes but I'm on the phone right now. I'll get you links later.
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This is common sentiment at this point, but until people stop supporting it with their attention, news organizations are going to get worse and worse
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seems legit
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The cable news media in country has easily been one of the biggest net negatives for society. He's right in that CNN was covering this non-stop for days, and the Columbine killers became folk legends from the way they were analyzed and portrayed.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

@darkphoenix181 posted...

ChromaticAngel posted...

It's not just a real quote, it's supported by a lot of professional psychologists / sociologists.

got a citation of this?

Yes but I'm on the phone right now. I'll get you links later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2o1V4lX_g4

Here you go. Straight from a forensic psychiatrist.

The last 2 seconds of his warning are probably the most chilling.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

It's not just a real quote, it's supported by a lot of professional psychologists / sociologists.

It's why they don't show it when someone runs out on the field during a baseball/football game.
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EnragedSlith posted...

This is common sentiment at this point, but until people stop supporting it with their attention, news organizations are going to get worse and worse

but it's hard to not give it some attention.

especially if someone wants to simply find out how many died, where, when, why, etc. disregarding the who, people still want to know the other details. Unfortunately the only way to get those other details is to either tune into the news or read an article that invariably mentions and talks about the 'who'
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wackyteen posted...

EnragedSlith posted...

This is common sentiment at this point, but until people stop supporting it with their attention, news organizations are going to get worse and worse

but it's hard to not give it some attention.

especially if someone wants to simply find out how many died, where, when, why, etc. disregarding the who, people still want to know the other details. Unfortunately the only way to get those other details is to either tune into the news or read an article that invariably mentions and talks about the 'who'

reporting on it is simple. all you have to do is not turn it into a TV drama.

the steps outlined in the video above are pretty clear.

1. Don't show pictures of the killer
2. Don't publish their manifestos or other insane rambling
3. Don't make them appear to be an antihero
4. Localize the report to only the affected communities
5. Make the report as boring as possible

and if you still need more info like the victims or something, put it somewhere online in a legal document and people who are genuinely interested can still research it.

But this would nurt news TV ratings so they ignore all of that.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

But this would nurt news TV ratings so they ignore all of that.

i know how it should be but i'm talking about how it is right now. <_<
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ChromaticAngel posted...

2. Don't publish their manifestos or other insane rambling

good point
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He's not wrong in that the media plays a definite contributing factor in it. It's why I wish they would just focus on the act committed, and not delve into the minutiae surrounding the perp's life and the rest of his family. I don't give a shit about them, so their coverage of them just reeks of massacre masturbation for page views and nielsen numbers.
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Alucard188 posted...

He's not wrong in that the media plays a definite contributing factor in it. It's why I wish they would just focus on the act committed, and not delve into the minutiae surrounding the perp's life and the rest of his family. I don't give a shit about them, so their coverage of them just reeks of massacre masturbation for page views and nielsen numbers.

You should watch the video at #12
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Alucard188 posted...

He's not wrong in that the media plays a definite contributing factor in it. It's why I wish they would just focus on the act committed, and not delve into the minutiae surrounding the perp's life and the rest of his family. I don't give a shit about them, so their coverage of them just reeks of massacre masturbation for page views and nielsen numbers.

You should watch the video at #12

It's all incredibly logical stuff, too. News and cable outlets won't do it though, because murder and tragedy sells. It's why we see such a explosion of race-related issues plaguing the media nowadays. It sells. These people are selling sensationalized news to us, specifically curated to appeal to current social agendas. The 24h news cycle is garbage, and these guys are now competing with the likes of Twitter and Facebook for their views.
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