James Holmes Isn’t National News

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News directors, reporters and highly paid pundits across the country are wrong. The murders in Aurora, Colorado were not and are not worthy of their focus and our national attention. Our species’ interest in demons, in monsters, in the nameless, ghastly things lurking in the shadows is our lowest common denominator. Though that dark fascination exists in all of us, it is a beast that deserves to starve. Instead, we’re feeding it daily and increasing its appetite. As a result, we think less of our neighbors and ourselves. And worse — we expect less.

Millions of Americans got dumber on Monday listening to commentators on every network issue hushed, breathless descriptions of the unusual blinking patterns of a demented, heavily drugged psychopath with tie-dyed hair. To what end?

Is anyone outside Aurora, Colorado better off for knowing about these murders? Did Holmes’ outrage illuminate a pattern of repeated, predictable behavior that needs to be addressed before it becomes epidemic? Will the wounds of the victims and their families heal faster because their plights are broadcast nationally? Do the American people benefit by looking into the eyes of the broken-hearted or into the eyes of the maniac who broke their hearts?

Of course not.

The spellbindingly monotonous coverage of these murders and their aftermath has needlessly reduced public trust, dulled people’s senses and increased people’s anxiety. It’s bad for public health. It’s bad for public safety. It’s bad for culture, for patriotism. It’s bad for the economy. And it’s good for nothing.

So why do it?

The news world is following two ancient rules:

1) If it bleeds, it leads.

2) Give the people what they want.

The first has always been a rule for news, one that explicitly grasps for the nadir of civilization and elevates it to page one. The second is a rule for entertainment. It is less explicit in its directive, but becomes sinister when one understands the intended inflection of the word “people.” Mankind has always had an obsession with the macabre, but that isn’t the only thing that people want.

People want spiritual fulfillment. They want optimism. They want to believe that their daily striving and quiet desperation has a positive impact on some larger, higher purpose. People want to believe that their efforts, however small, make a contribution to the betterment of their children, their neighbors and their world.

Think of a single human’s impulses — toward generosity, greed, chastity, lust, honor, envy, patience, wrath, piety, reason, justice, compassion, etc. — as a series of mouths. Through our daily intake and processing of information, we feed one at the expense of another. No impulse is ever sated, but their relative hungers grow with each feeding. As we make our choices, we decide what kind of a person (and a people) we will become.

On another branch of the same limb, what kind of incentives are we creating for the next James Holmes? Holmes has received wall-to-wall coverage on every major network, reactions from two presidential candidates and from the Pope. For an anti-social nerd who hates civilization and regards himself as an arch-villain like the Joker, could we bestow a higher prize?

On Friday, July 20, 2012, someone discovered something. Someone broke a record. Someone caught a really big fish. Someone was named an Eagle Scout. Someone died for a worthy cause. Someone was reunited with a family member after years apart. And someone murdered 12 people in a movie theater. Why would we collectively choose to focus on this last someone?

Yates Walker is a conservative activist and writer. Before becoming involved in politics, he served honorably as a paratrooper and a medic in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He can be reached at yateswalker@gmail.com

Nancy Pelosi Says "God Bless" Occupy Wall Street Protestors & Aurora Shooter James Holmes

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The headline you just read is completely irresponsible and dangerous… as was the reporting of ABCNews when they irresponsibly reported that the shooter was a member of the Tea Party but with the state of our media today apparently completely acceptable.

This type of behavior from the national news media is nothing new, they have been trying, in vein, to link the Tea Party with violent acts since it’s inception, most notably:

September 2009 – Man found hanged with “Fed”scrawled across chest

 

“The death of a U.S. Census Bureau worker in Clay County, Ky., who was found hanging from a tree, reportedly with the word Fed scrawled on his chest, rippled through the national consciousness more than other crimes from rural, tucked-away corners might have. The discovery of the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, a substitute teacher and a field worker for the bureau, comes at a time when talk media, tea parties and white-hot town-hall meetings have fanned antigovernment sentiment. Speculation has run rampant that the Sparkman case may be related to the vitriol. Kentucky, like many other Southern states, voted overwhelmingly for Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election.” Sparkman hanged himself.

February 2010  – Man flies plane into IRS office in Texas

“Second, given the apparent momentum of the Tea Party movement, it would be nice to know if Stack’s kamikaze mission was a not-all-that-shocking emanation from it — whether, as some claim, more than a few Tea Partiers are unhinged.” Stack posted a “manifesto” on the Internet that compared communism favorably to capitalism.

May 2010 – Times  Square Bomber

“It may be that the Pakistan-based Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has quietly established a Connecticut franchise while we weren’t looking. That’s possible. But it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. Which actually exists in Connecticut, where, it seems, the car’s license plates were stolen.”
Shahzad was a Pakistan-born American citizen who tried to flee to Dubai following the failed attack.

January 2011 – Congresswoman Gabby Giffords shooting

“Even before the name of the shooter was known, a fierce debate spilled out across blogs and social media, with liberal commentators blaming the attack on the violent imagery evoked by some “tea party” candidates and conservatives during the recent midterm elections.” Loughner, who acted alone, is crazy and had no political motive.

July 2012 – Aurora, Colorado theater shooting

ABC’s Brian Ross: “There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.” Wrong guy.

The media’s rush to judgement in all of these cases trying to tie them to the Tea Party is journalistic malpractice and dangerously irresponsible. It’s important to note that in all these cases the media has been proven wrong and the exact opposite was the truth. In this case, it’s starting to look like the same MO as suspected shooter James Holmes may be a registered Democrat and quite possibly a member of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

‘Good Morning America’ Immediately Ties Colorado Shooting Tragedy To Tea Party

4 Hours later after it was clear they were utterly wrong in their reporting Brian Ross Admits He Was Wrong, Says Shooting Suspect Not Connected to Tea Party

They got the wrong James Holmes??? That would be like us running with a Headline ABC News’ Brian Ross asked little girls for photos and sex, police say:

Explicit photos and text messages to two girls has landed a 37-year-old Mentone man in jail on suspicion of sex-related charges, according to Fontana police and jail records.

Brian John Ross was arrested at 5:35 p.m. Thursday at Sierra and Merrill avenues in Fontana and booked on suspicion of contacting a minor and arranging to meet with a minor via the Internet for the purpose of having sex, jail records show. His bail is $50,000.

On March 13, a 10-year-old Fontana girl received a text message from a man who would later identify himself as a 38-year-old named “Brian,” police said in a written statement.

Brian sent the girl a face shot along with a photo of himself exposed, according to the statement.

Then, hours later saying oops wrong Brian Ross…

Turns out that the suspect was neuroscience Ph.D student James Holmes

Photo of Holmes. (University of Colorado via ABC News)

Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes was in the process from withdrawing from a doctorate program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado-Denver, according to university spokesman Dan Myers. Holmes began the program last year.

This photo, obtained by ABC News, reportedly shows the 24-year-old Holmes. Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Holmes’ apartment is booby trapped with a “sophisticated” maze of flammable devices. It could take hours or days for authorities to disarm it. Five nearby buildings have been evacuated. Oates said Holmes had no criminal record in the state.

Some preliminary investigations into James Holmes have uncovered that the suspect may be a registered Democrat and quite possibly a member of the Occupy Wall Street Movement

James Holmes, DOB 12/13/1987: The Batman movie portrays the OWS crowd in a negative vein,the new Batman movie featured the villain as an Occupy Wall Street type. I would first look at the possibility that James Holmes, DOB 12/13/1987, was caught up in the OWS movement took it upon himself to strike back against “THE MAN.

 

If ABC News and other MSM outlets can get away with linking the Tea Party to these violent acts, in turn, they shouldn’t have any problem with us linking this behavior with Democrat Leaders like Nancy Pelosi supporting the OWS Movement.

Nancy Pelosi: God bless occupy Wall Street protestors: