No Media Exposure, No Copy-Cat Terrorists
I spent the last week in Bologna Italy. Naturally everyone was talking about the Virginia Tech shooting. There are two things that amaze and baffle the Europeans that I spoke with and heard on the Italian television and radio. First, what kind of country allows the manufacture and legal sale of deadly, automatic weapons and ammunition, especially to someone so young? The second is why does the media show photos of the killer and publish his rants and writings verbatim? The obvious results of this exposure is that the exhibitionism creates a romantic, revolutionary icon with a photogenic face and propels him towards becoming an internationally know human who’s infamy, images and writings will live in history. Because of such attention any lonely, disenfranchised nut can become infamous if his act of terror is sufficiently heinous. The media gives power to powerlessness. What should be remembered are the horrific acts of violence committed not the image of a gun toting child, standing as if in a movie still photo, emulating fiction characters who live outside of reality? This image is one that other disenfranchised and confused humans will admire and want to aspire to.
We are all looking for meaning in our lives, some, unfortunately and for lack of any positive alternative or a flaw in their character choose to emulate the outcast as a revolutionary savior of the poor and oppressed, who is justifying their acts by destroying the perpetrators of the perceived injustices. That search for meaning often is framed by finding someone who exemplifies, looks like, the person they want to be. Limit the images available and you limit the specificity a potential terrorist has to model them selves after. My theory is that NBC and other news services exploit tragedies to increase ratings. It happened in September 11th 2001. Also, the politicians, especially the faith based ones, shamelessly exploit these tragedies to enhance their perceived righteousness and strengthen their religious affiliations.
In the seventies I went to school and working in Italy for ten years. The bombings, shootings and kidnappings were frequent, perpetrated by both homegrown militant political groups and foreign extremist gunners and bombers. They came from Germany and the Middle East. I narrowly missed two such killings, the bombing of the Bologna train station and the bombing at the Rome airport*. At that time news papers often printed the manifestos authored by the radical political sects. Quickly it was determined that the media was being manipulated and giving a voice to these dangerous groups and put a self imposed moratorium on the publishing of any writings sent to them from any illegal group. This succeeded in silencing many who would otherwise have gained widespread notoriety and converts from the free publicity. Common sense leads you to this obvious conclusion; it baffles and enrages me that the executives and editors of our news services haven’t come to this conclusion.
Imagine if Osama bin Laden’s name was never used and his image never shown on television. We could have made reference to him by calling him the Saudi Arabian born terrorist leader and shown a silhouetted image of him without showing specifics. The responsible journalists didn’t have to publish the specific words he said but could have simply stated that a message was sent to them from him and might have paraphrased certain points to illustrate his radicalism. He wouldn’t have become the world renowned terrorist leader that he is now and would not have learnt to become an astute manipulator of the world’s media machine. The power of his name and image has been bestowed upon him by the people who have the most reason to de-claw and weaken him. One relatively small terrorist attack or threat is blown out of proportion by the United States news machine so as to sensationalize the information and increase audience thus increasing the value of their media platform for sponsors and advertisers increasing profits. Their irresponsible publishing also increases the power of the terrorists and increases many fold the resulting disruption to our lives.
Under the Bin Laden franchise, murders have taken place but his personal involvement is no longer needed. The acts can be planned and carried out by local terrorists who find his media created image appealing and want to be associated with the man who brought down the mighty United States of America. Bin Laden is an Icon, dead or alive he’ll retain the same power both by using the graphic power of his image and using the strength and his words that are broadcast for free and that can give impressionable young people a meaning to their meaningless lives.
Terrorism is nothing new. Assassinations and violence has been a tool of radicals for centuries or as long as man has created a multilevel society containing the haves and have-nots. I would think that there are many lessons to learn from all of this history. Why can’t we use this knowledge to self regulate the freedom of speech we have to minimize the creation of terrorist icons and thus create a safer environment to live. Most important, why are we manufacturing weapons and selling them to Saudi Arabia and college kids. Cars don’t kill people, people kill people but guns don’t transport people they are created only to kill and maim people.
* December 17, 1973 Palestinian terrorists bomb Pan Am office at Fiumicino airport, Rome, Italy killing thirty two and injuring fifty. The terrorist then take seven Italian policemen hostage and hijack an aircraft to Athens, Greece, before flying on to Kuwait after killing one of the hostages. They then surrendered.
We are all looking for meaning in our lives, some, unfortunately and for lack of any positive alternative or a flaw in their character choose to emulate the outcast as a revolutionary savior of the poor and oppressed, who is justifying their acts by destroying the perpetrators of the perceived injustices. That search for meaning often is framed by finding someone who exemplifies, looks like, the person they want to be. Limit the images available and you limit the specificity a potential terrorist has to model them selves after. My theory is that NBC and other news services exploit tragedies to increase ratings. It happened in September 11th 2001. Also, the politicians, especially the faith based ones, shamelessly exploit these tragedies to enhance their perceived righteousness and strengthen their religious affiliations.
In the seventies I went to school and working in Italy for ten years. The bombings, shootings and kidnappings were frequent, perpetrated by both homegrown militant political groups and foreign extremist gunners and bombers. They came from Germany and the Middle East. I narrowly missed two such killings, the bombing of the Bologna train station and the bombing at the Rome airport*. At that time news papers often printed the manifestos authored by the radical political sects. Quickly it was determined that the media was being manipulated and giving a voice to these dangerous groups and put a self imposed moratorium on the publishing of any writings sent to them from any illegal group. This succeeded in silencing many who would otherwise have gained widespread notoriety and converts from the free publicity. Common sense leads you to this obvious conclusion; it baffles and enrages me that the executives and editors of our news services haven’t come to this conclusion.
Imagine if Osama bin Laden’s name was never used and his image never shown on television. We could have made reference to him by calling him the Saudi Arabian born terrorist leader and shown a silhouetted image of him without showing specifics. The responsible journalists didn’t have to publish the specific words he said but could have simply stated that a message was sent to them from him and might have paraphrased certain points to illustrate his radicalism. He wouldn’t have become the world renowned terrorist leader that he is now and would not have learnt to become an astute manipulator of the world’s media machine. The power of his name and image has been bestowed upon him by the people who have the most reason to de-claw and weaken him. One relatively small terrorist attack or threat is blown out of proportion by the United States news machine so as to sensationalize the information and increase audience thus increasing the value of their media platform for sponsors and advertisers increasing profits. Their irresponsible publishing also increases the power of the terrorists and increases many fold the resulting disruption to our lives.
Under the Bin Laden franchise, murders have taken place but his personal involvement is no longer needed. The acts can be planned and carried out by local terrorists who find his media created image appealing and want to be associated with the man who brought down the mighty United States of America. Bin Laden is an Icon, dead or alive he’ll retain the same power both by using the graphic power of his image and using the strength and his words that are broadcast for free and that can give impressionable young people a meaning to their meaningless lives.
Terrorism is nothing new. Assassinations and violence has been a tool of radicals for centuries or as long as man has created a multilevel society containing the haves and have-nots. I would think that there are many lessons to learn from all of this history. Why can’t we use this knowledge to self regulate the freedom of speech we have to minimize the creation of terrorist icons and thus create a safer environment to live. Most important, why are we manufacturing weapons and selling them to Saudi Arabia and college kids. Cars don’t kill people, people kill people but guns don’t transport people they are created only to kill and maim people.
* December 17, 1973 Palestinian terrorists bomb Pan Am office at Fiumicino airport, Rome, Italy killing thirty two and injuring fifty. The terrorist then take seven Italian policemen hostage and hijack an aircraft to Athens, Greece, before flying on to Kuwait after killing one of the hostages. They then surrendered.
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