This is absolutely sick. People are dying, and in constant threat of getting shot, and all these networks see are dollar signs.

"US Sniper Helping the Media

The sniper attacks in the US in the last few days have been a boon for media companies with all major US TV stations gaining huge numbers of viewers.

Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC have all increased viewer numbers by over 10% in the last week.

Publishers are also expecting to make a killing out of the sniper with one saying "I think once the killer is caught, there will be a lot of books" and "especially for quickie paperback books."

Tom said:

Of course, they are delighted. It's so obvious that even here in Canada, the Toronto Sun's front page had what I consider to be the ultimate acknowledgment of the media's actual wish for sniper stories. The page read :

SNIPER STRIKES!

Woman may be 11th victim


They so wanted to use that headline that they ran it while clearly showing it was inaccurate right under it (in a much smaller font)
[This message was edited Thu Oct 17 14:55:24 PDT 2002 by Aerogram]

That is what I have been saying... the media sensationalizes EVERYTHING in hopes of making money...

FUCK THE MEDIA

What's more is the media is adding to the frenzy. Granted this sniper or snipers have killed people, but it's only 9 or 10 people, out of 300 million people in the US. To have the whole country up in arms about it is just ridiculous and irresponsible. They need to just stop covering it and move on to something more positive or more relative.

mrchristian said:

You can't be serious. Try telling the people who were shot or lost members of their families that it's not relative. Tell this to the thousands of people who live in the DC area who afaid to leave their house. If you lived in the DC area would you feel safe? It's easy to say this from the comfort of Minnesota thousands of miles away from the carnage.

Should they pretend it's not happening and go cover the story of the kitten rescued from a tree so you can feel more "positive"?


.
[This message was edited Thu Oct 17 15:45:14 PDT 2002 by lovemachine]

lovemachine said:

I am completely serious. It's one thing to report a story. It's another to get the whole country in a frenzy about their own back yard when something is happening thousands of miles away from them, to so few a people. In the DC area it's justified. To turn it into a circus like Fox News and numberous other channels have done on national TV is both sensationalist and irresponsible in my opinion.

And I don't think rescuing a cat from a tree is relative, but a possible war on Iraq, our negotiations with the UN, North Korea's admittance to having a nuclear war program, how about everyday drug related murders in the streets of any major city in the US is much more relative. I guarantee the 9 or 10 people in LA and NYC, or even in DC itself-were just shot at gunpoint...is that being covered? Probably not. Are the DC sniper's victims more worthy of coverage?

Regardless of the topic, i just don't see how the national media's coverage of the DC sniper is doing any good. Will it catch the guy if Jim 'Goatfuck' McCoy in Alabama has all the dirt on the snipers whereabouts? Not likely. Will it encourage copycat snipers? Very likely.

I don't need to look any further than the Columbine tragedy and subsequent coverage to know how many students in just MN alone pulled similar stunts in their own schools just days following the shootings in CO.
The media crossed a line way back with the OJ trial in order to get ratings and viewers, but i don't have to like it.

the media whores do this to every story. now there's some genius on FOX saying he thinks the sniper(s) is/are "a slacker that sits around and plays violent video games all day." the only truth is that no one knows a damn thing...

this sniper is getting really good at making the police chief look like Barney Fife...