By Glenn Mollette
WDBJ-TV Virginia television reporters Alison Parker and Adam Ward were executed while doing their jobs. They were good people who were successful at what they did and loved their work.
The insane ex-reporter who murdered them on live television killed himself. There are reports of some wacky manifesto and a faxed message to ABC about his state of mind. His state of mind was pure craziness. Obviously he needed psychiatric help. We can be thankful that a policeman did not have to kill him. However, it might have been best if a policeman could have killed this murderer before he gunned down Parker and Ward. I wonder what the newsfeed would be today if a policeman could have shot the idiot before he took two innocent lives?
The killer’s name is all over the news and all over the Internet. You know his name well already. He is now famous. He is famous for taking two innocent lives and destroying families and breaking the hearts of millions of people. There needs to be a media agreement that the names of such people are never mentioned on television or printed in the media. This evil murderer is now reaping what he had hoped for and that is all the fame and deranged glory he could never earn on the merits, hard work and skills that he did not possess.
We shouldn’t post video clips or show pictures of the horrific beheadings carried out by ISIS. When we do we are giving them what they so desperately crave – attention. The more attention ISIS receives the more they seem to be fueled.
I realize what I am suggesting isn’t going to happen. I affirm the first People want to know and I know that television, radio and print report the news and the news includes names. The bad people always make the news.
If we left the evil people out of the news then names like John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. or Charles Manson would not be so widely written about.
This is the day of social media and worldwide communication technology. A word, a post and horrific actions are seen around the world often moments after they happen. As in the murder of these two young journalists the murderer did everything he could to make sure he received as much attention as possible by even posting his own video clip online.
Identities of bad people will be reported. However, whenever we have the chance as reporters, editors or columnists we ought to find a way to not add more fame to the deranged individuals who sought it so horrifically.
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Glenn Mollette is an American Syndicated Columnist and Author. He is the author of eleven books and read in all fifty states. Like his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GlennMollette.
