Irresponsibility is built into American news

Officer Melvin Santiago

It happened again. A guy (whose name I won't include in this post) killed a police officer in New Jersey so he could become famous. He went into a drug store with no intention of robbing it. He simply accosted the private security officer, took his gun and waited for the police to arrive. They were his quarry.

When Officer Melvin Santiago, a 23-year-old who'd only been on the force for six months, pulled up in a police car outside the drug store, the perp shot him in the head, killing him.

In the subsequent news barrage, the media helpfully informed us that the perp had told people earlier in the day that they should watch the news tonight "because I'm going to be famous."

He was right. The news media complied immediately with the killer's wish, plastering his name and image all over the TV stations and newspapers. He got what he wanted: they made him a star.

This is stupid and irresponsible but media heads don't consider the effects of their coverage. They just blast it out there, heedlessly. It doesn't have to be this way. They could easily make a simple decision to call these idiots "Coward 1" (and Coward 2, etc.) and never show their image. If the creeps don't get the media coverage they hunger for, they won't think it's "fun" to kill more cops. You think they want to go into prison and shout "I'm coward number 23!"? I seriously doubt it.

The media fosters these murders as surely as if they put an ad on Craigslist that says, "Wanna kill cops? We promise to cover the event and make you a star! Go for it!"

It's sickening. Wake up, news media. You play a huge role in these murders. But hey, I'll bet that doesn't even bother you. The money keeps rolling in, so why should you care?

And that, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with America: money is god, and all else bows before it.