This interesting news story popped up online, normally I don’t really post things like this here but this hits home with me in how I think. Morgan Freeman’s publicist claims this is a hoax and not true. If he or whoever said this was on to something here…

The remark floating around online that was said to be from Freeman stated the following, "You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why. It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody."

The falsely-attributed quote continued, "CNN's article says that if the body count 'holds up,' this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations­, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next. You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem."

Mind you I am not a monster, I feel for the families that lost loved ones but the media just pushes this stuff too much, it is all over Facebook says my wife and is just a runaway media train. Meanwhile we have other mentally ill people in the US watching this right now and perhaps getting the same idea. Don’t think so? Ask the al Qaeda, they were reading the tragic events of 9/11 like it was an ode to their labors of evil and hate. They basked in that media coverage and prior to that they was just a little know terrorist group. Again, another tragic event that I feel sorrow to those that lost loved ones at that time. Yet, we do feed the monster.

There are three simple facts we should learn from this horrible incident:

1)      We should stop feeding the monsters. Sure we can report the news and have feelings but only so far.

2)      We need to improve our mental health care here in the US and perhaps worldwide. We allow these people to suffer without help, the acts they do are a cry out for attention in their lives.

3)      Gun control is not the answer. I keep reading this garbage over and over again but the bottom line is if these psychos are going to do something like this do they care about legal or not? No, they will buy the weapons illegally or make them in other ways. Think I am wrong? Remember the 1996 Centennial Bomber? I do, didn’t use a gun and made his explosives from household stuff. I still recall this because I was working a radio shift that night. I passed on news reports as I learned things from our news network with the radio station I worked at on the fringe of Atlanta. Here again is another idiot we made into an over hyped media guy.

Oh also tell all these celebs to quit saying insincere comments about the incidents. They all release these statements and such as a PR hype for their career, maybe they care, maybe they don't. In any case until they do something about it like donate money to pay for the funerals or travel expenses for families you should shut the hell up and quit using a tragic event as your media boost of the week for public relations.