October 4, 2015
PRO-LIFE OR PRO-PRESS?:
Why naming the Oregon shooter matters: Editorial (The Oregonian Editorial Board, October 02, 2015)
With great ostentation, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin stood in front of reporters in the midst of a nationally calamitous moment and announced what he wasn't going to say."I will not name the shooter," said Hanlin on Thursday, hours after a heavily-armed man had fatally shot nine people and wounded nine others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. "I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act." Hanlin continued, punctuating his statement with brief, dramatic pauses. "But you will never hear me mention his name." He then urged the news media and community to avoid using the shooter's name, saying it only glorifies his actions.
The press can't, on the one hand, insist on an absolute right to fulfill the purposes of these perps and turn them into celebrities, but, on the other, decry an absolutist defense of gun rights, easy access to which abets the murders.
Both sides wish to separate the means of the Constitution from its ends : To "insure domestic Tranquility" and "promote the general Welfare." As Justice Jackson wrote, it's not a suicide pact.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 4, 2015 8:35 AM
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