Honolulu Lite
LET'S see if I've got this straight: Two punks in Littleton, Colo., plan a mass murder at Columbine High School for weeks, mainly to get their names in newspapers, on television and for Hollywood to make a movie about them. Guess what? The papers publish their names, television splashes their faces all over the tube and there's no doubt someone in Hollywood right now is trying to buy the story rights. Killer kids don’t
deserve media helpNow, somewhere across the country, a couple of pimply-faced, half-wit, nerdy teen-agers who've spent way too much time playing video shooting games and being harassed by schoolmates for being pimply-faced, half-wit nerds, are being inspired by the notoriety of the Columbine killers.
Or, maybe several dozen disenfranchised teens are being inspired by the avalanche of coverage of the school shootings, realizing that they, too, can get their pimply mugs on television and hear their names drip from the lips of the likes of Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw.
All they have to do is make a pipe bomb or take their daddy's 9mm handgun from its completely secure spot in the shoe box in the closet and they, too, can become media stars. And, maybe, simply by gunning down a few innocent schoolmates, they will become infamous enough for Oliver Stone to make a movie about them, which he would never do if it were just a run-of-the-mill shooting in which the names of the gun kids were never made public.
SOME of my fellow journalists will consider this blasphemy, but isn't it about time the news media stop publishing the names, photos and video of minors who commit vicious crimes simply in order to get publicity?
Homemade videotapes released by authorities this week showed the Columbine shooters (who will remain nameless here) explaining their plans to go on a rampage, in part to become infamous and have a movie made about the incident. They got their wish as far as becoming infamous. The fact that both boys killed themselves during the Columbine incident and will not enjoy the proceeds of their sick vision isn't the point. The fact that their vision will be played out at other schools by copycats is.
So, what about the news media? Is it going against journalistic principles not to publish the names and faces of juvenile criminals?
Not really. Many newspapers and television news organizations have self-imposed guidelines regarding releasing the names of juvenile criminals. But, peculiarly, it's a shifting threshold. If a kid does something relatively minor, like robbery or assault, most media organizations won't release their names or photos. But if the offense is horrible enough, the guidelines are waived.
The Columbine case is more difficult because one of the shooters was 17 and the other 18, legally an adult. But, in the previous school shootings that seem to have inspired the Columbine case, the killers were minors. And, the Columbine shooters specifically say on their videotape that their shootings would make all the others look like nothing.
What's going on here is a specific cultural phenomenon whereby angry, disturbed kids seek their 15 minutes of fame -- dead or alive -- through extreme violence. They write, direct and star in their own made-for-TV dramas.
The media, TV networks in particular, need to stop playing the part of producers.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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