Arizona Shooting and the Media's Premature Problem

In the wake of the media launching another all-out strike against their most hated rivals (i.e. the Tea Party and rightwing pundits), I can't help but make a comparison between the Media and premature ejaculation. Now, I must apologize for the somewhat crude analogy and I intentionally avoid course themes or language, but the parallel is just too obvious. The media, as it has repeatedly done in the past with our juicy news events, has reacted like an overly excited lover who quickly loses his control at the height of passion. I will call it "journalistic PE," although I do hesitate a bit at using the term "journalistic" in this sad state of affairs.

And, as frequently happens in PE, rather than the lover seeking medical attention and getting at the root of the problem, he angrily folds his arms, withdraws, and blames the woman. "There must be a problem with YOU!" We have the press likewise blaming everyone but itself. "It's the Tea Party's fault." "The Glenn Becks and the Sarah Palins are to blame."

The media are engrossed in an all out fingerpointing campaign, all the while feigning innocence in a lame attempt to bury their own fomenting of and participation in heated rhetoric. Vicious attacks went exponential during the Bush years; but, the MSM feign amnesia. Anyone else out there remember the hideous verbal attacks made on Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Rice?

And how dumb must the media think that we, the public, are that we would buy their "blame game" for even a second? The moment the chaos of the Tucson shooting subsided a bit, the press instantly launched into blaming its favorite whipping boy -- the Tea Party. The LA Times reported that Loughner was a 22-year-old Afghan war vet, the military being another favorite whipping boy. None of this hysteria was true.

This whole con game makes me think back to last year's Christmas Day bomber. Remember how that story first was reported? Speculation immediately honed in on the Tea Party, with the press all but publicly pleading that the culprit be a white guy with a hellish grudge. Even Mayor Bloomberg announced that his suspicion was that the perpetrator was probably someone upset with ObamaCare. After the press rested, all aglow from its premature pleasure, the true whacko was finally revealed. Rather than publicly saying "Gee, we were wrong!", the MSM quickly diverted the discussion to travel safety ... not so much about the true problem of radicalism.

In the current tragedy, the press overlooked its own utter failure in journalistic integrity and promptly launched into its current distraction: "violent rhetoric" and gun rights. It is the rare journalist or commentator on TV that shifts the focus of the discussion to the central issue: mental illness.

Our press continually engages in smoke and mirrors, employing distractions from real and/or bigger issues and directing our focus to what it deems important in accomplishing its political agenda. In the wake of the Tucson shooting, they wish to have us focus on their favorite "most hated" targets: the Tea Party, right-wingers, FoxNews, the military, and its newest focus of punishing their "enemies" for the sound defeat in November. (Oh, and please do not interpret my use of the word "target" as any implied or explicit incitement to violence. I wonder if I now have to quit shopping at Target ...)

Let us not fall for their trickery and, instead, turn our attention and efforts to the true problems: mental illness and a manipulative, agenda-driven press.