Rampage Nation: The Press No Longer Cares About Epic Gun Violence

The press now covers shooting sprees the way it covers killer tornadoes: They're one-day stories, they're acts of nature, and all people can do is try to stay out of the way.
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Killing sprees just don't hold journalists' attention like they used to.

And even more telling last week in the wake of the historic Alabama bloodbath, was the way the press avoided addressing the issue of gun control. There was a virtual media ban on the topic. I could not find a single newspaper or television report, within the first 36 hours of the Alabama massacre, that even mentioned "gun control." For the press, the issue does not exist. Period.

And that's become the media's trademark pattern when covering the mass murders that stain the country -- they're treated as though they're isolated incidents and as though there is no larger public policy issue that ties them together. The press has pretty much embraced the old NRA mantra: Guns don't kill people. People do.

Indeed, the press now covers shooting sprees the way it covers killer tornadoes: They're one-day stories, they're acts of nature, and all people can do is try to stay out of the way.

Read the full Media Matters column here.

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