Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Pray for Virginia Tech- Go Home Media!

It is in times like these that our only hope and comfort comes from God. It is in the midst of senseless tragedy that we come to know the grace of the Almighty. To that we must cling. We pray for all those affected in all ways. The sinking feeling in my stomach is similar to the feeling of 9/11.

Perhaps equally sad is the swarm of lmedia that have descended upon the campus of VT in Blacksburg. Should they be there? Yes- it is a newsworthy event. I have no problem with that. What they should not be doing in a difficult and tragic time like this is assessing blame. There may be a time for blame or for a review of how the tragedy could have been handled better, but now is not the time. It is irrelevant at this point! However, we have a media in our country today that has been taught and has as its reason for living to be the next Woodward and Bernstein and find the scandal, the cover up or where to asses blame. This is what is happening today and happened yesterday as people have sought to make sense of this tragedy. You in the media are no help when you engage in such irresponsibility. Again, there will be a time to assess. But gosh darnit- just report the news for once and stop stirring people into a frenzy. It is to be expected that people directly affected by this tragedy would have a need to assess blame and seek answers and accountability as a way of dealing with this tragedy. However, we don't need a media to fan the flames.

So, unless you are going to report the news then go home. We know your angle has been written now- the talking points are out. Have some compassion and let the students and people of Blacksburg, VT, Virginia and the nation grieve before you play your blame game.

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