To: FOX News, CNN, Title or Position (optional), NY Post newspaper, Title or Position (optional), ABC network, Title or Position (optional), NBC network, Title or Position (optional), CBS network, Title or Position (optional), and Name, Titl...
Dear Sensationalist Media: Accept Responsibility
I am writing this anonymously out of respect for one of my school classmates who lost their child in the Newtown massacre, and I do not want their names revealed out of their request for privacy. (Please do not post their names!)
True we need stricter, better gun control which will hopefully gain traction in congress very soon. But the Sensationalist Media needs to take some responsibility for their role in national tragedies such as the Newtown shootings. These incidents are horrific enough without the media’s morbid obsession to glorify the killer into some mainstream Celebrity that any kid can emulate. In fact, on Sunday, LA police arrested a 24-year-old male at his parents’ house in East Hollywood. He had posted a Facebook message in which he threatened to shoot children at several elementary schools. Police found nine guns in the home.
Since the gunman Adam Lanza is already dead, there is no need to inundate our screens & the internet with various shots of him. Media coverage today focuses too much on unnecessary details such as what clothes they wore, what they looked like as a kid, and how they drove from their house to the school or church. In the case of Newtown, we know that Adam drove his mother’s car. How is this relevant to anything?
This week we are all trying to mourn the victims as the funerals take place. But how can the families affected get any solace when they keep seeing coverage of their own child's funeral replayed all over the internet? Why do we need to see the mother walk into the funeral of her son? Then there’s the media trucks taking over the streets of Sandy Hook, Newtown. I whole-heartedly agree with the Denver Post article from 12/17: “Newtown to the media: You're making this nightmare worse”. One resident said the huge media presence is ‘hurting the people of Newtown at a time when their hearts are already broken beyond comprehension’. One reporter actually said to another resident: 'Someone in this town has to start talking to us, this is our story!’ Where are their scruples? The media needs to leave Newtown TODAY so the affected families can grieve in Peace.
Please join me by signing this petition to call upon all major media networks (CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS) to let them know that we do NOT want to see or hear about every single scene in their soap-opera story. This is also a call for the media to evaluate their reporting tactics and accept some responsibility for their role in perpetuating these gruesome events.
Thank you.
True we need stricter, better gun control which will hopefully gain traction in congress very soon. But the Sensationalist Media needs to take some responsibility for their role in national tragedies such as the Newtown shootings. These incidents are horrific enough without the media’s morbid obsession to glorify the killer into some mainstream Celebrity that any kid can emulate. In fact, on Sunday, LA police arrested a 24-year-old male at his parents’ house in East Hollywood. He had posted a Facebook message in which he threatened to shoot children at several elementary schools. Police found nine guns in the home.
Since the gunman Adam Lanza is already dead, there is no need to inundate our screens & the internet with various shots of him. Media coverage today focuses too much on unnecessary details such as what clothes they wore, what they looked like as a kid, and how they drove from their house to the school or church. In the case of Newtown, we know that Adam drove his mother’s car. How is this relevant to anything?
This week we are all trying to mourn the victims as the funerals take place. But how can the families affected get any solace when they keep seeing coverage of their own child's funeral replayed all over the internet? Why do we need to see the mother walk into the funeral of her son? Then there’s the media trucks taking over the streets of Sandy Hook, Newtown. I whole-heartedly agree with the Denver Post article from 12/17: “Newtown to the media: You're making this nightmare worse”. One resident said the huge media presence is ‘hurting the people of Newtown at a time when their hearts are already broken beyond comprehension’. One reporter actually said to another resident: 'Someone in this town has to start talking to us, this is our story!’ Where are their scruples? The media needs to leave Newtown TODAY so the affected families can grieve in Peace.
Please join me by signing this petition to call upon all major media networks (CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS) to let them know that we do NOT want to see or hear about every single scene in their soap-opera story. This is also a call for the media to evaluate their reporting tactics and accept some responsibility for their role in perpetuating these gruesome events.
Thank you.
Why is this important?
This peition focuses on how the media's constantly sensationalizes tragic events such as the Newtown school shooting massacre. It calls for them to evaluate their reporting tactics & accept some responsibily for perpetuating these horrific events.