Maybe Crime Against Politicians Will Solve Itself



Today various news outlets and pundits are treating the latest assassination of a political figure as a great turning point in U.S. history. The implication on the right is this will galvanize the majority to turn against the left. On the left the hope is this will galvanize the majority to regulate guns and other precautions. One thing seems to be emerging, it is not going to play out like 9/11 of the assassination of JFK. The public is growing weary of discussing such an issue and moves on more quickly than it has done in the past.

I know readers recall the period when airplanes were being hijacked and/or blown up. Precautions are now in place that I'm sure make this more difficult. Could it be, also, that the practice is simply less attractive to politically motivated criminals around the world than it once was? I never hear these days of foiled attempts to hijack airplanes. It makes me think it has lost its limelight and therefore its appeal.

I don't claim to be an expert in "the media" but I was around it a lot in my past life as an elected official. My amateur opinion is there are only a few kinds of media stories. One is about stuff important to know in a democracy. These, of course, are stories about government services, court cases, politicians and so on. 

One other is stories that have emotional content. TV stories that project emotion, like closeups of people crying, are favorites in this category. The camera stays on a person crying longer than necessary. 

Whacko people shooting politicians or shooting children at school have a bit of government and safety in them. But they are, in my opinion, more about emotions than they are about safety, law enforcement or other aspects of the common good. One can argue shooting stories are about "the public's right to know." There is little interest, however, in the 40,000 people killed each year in car wrecks. By any rational measurement of public safety or sad emotions left after each death traffic stories about them should get as much, even more, coverage than the assassination of a public personality. In our automobile culture, deaths in cars are simply necessary so we can drive a lot and drive fast. 

When decisions about news are about selling advertisements, we get what we have today. What may be the future, however, is less media interest in these murders followed by less interest by those who do the terrible deeds. 

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