Have they no shame?

[FCTP]

 

The shooting in Arizona was horrible.  For me the worst part was finding out a 9 year old little girl was a victim of this tragedy.

 

We have watched children gunned down in schools by fellow students; workers in post offices, manufacturing plants, and other businesses killed by co-workers or disgruntled former employees; school board members shot by an angry parent; and men in military uniform gunned down on military facilities by a religious zealot.  And, of course,  thousands of people were killed by those who hate America on December 7 and September 11.   

 

America is full of wonderful, loving people who will go out of their way to help others.

 

America also has pockets of those who are insane, mentally unbalanced or just plain mean-spirited.

 

As long as we live in an imperfect world, we will have these pockets of individuals who will take down innocent lives to prove something or because something in their head said to do it.

 

All those injured or killed in this incident were innocent.  They did not deserve to die or be injured on a beautiful Saturday morning at the local grocery store.  They came to shop or they came to hear their Congresswoman in the local public square that she and her staff set up.   America was at its best on Saturday morning as a beautiful Congresswoman waited to listen to her constituents while the cash register rang up groceries and other families shopped. This is America and the act of a crazy young man should not impact the greatness of the public square or the greatness of its message of freedom.

 

There are many out there who should be ashamed of themselves for politicizing this event.  Because it was a public official's event, the media and many individuals and groups have run with misinformation and misguided conversations.  Their conversations, emails and statements are almost as dangerous as the young man who pulled the trigger.  The accusations are unfounded and hurtful to the truth.

 

The Sunday morning news shows were filled with conversations that did not focus on the insane gunman - but instead laid seeds of doubt about the tea party movement, radio show hosts and right leaning politicians.  This is a tactic that changes the conversation and creates hype, ratings and anger. 

 

Where have the world-class journalists gone?  Where are those who would never report before they had the facts? 

 

Why is that important?  Because the truth will set us free.  The media was in charge of finding the truth when government bureaucrats and politicians tried to hide it.  The media was the watchdog for the down and out.  The media was the ones who gave ALL Americans a voice...not just the ones they or their benefactors wanted them to speak or print.

 

It's one thing to have the media slant political discussions.  It is another thing to plant seeds about groups or individuals for this heinous act without any basis of reality, research or journalist integrity. 

 

As the week begins, many funerals will take place - including that of a 9 year old little girl.  Those who were injured will be fighting for their lives.  We will watch the reports and the networks and print media to see how they handle the news.  We will no longer tolerate the twisted conversations.  Those who died or are fighting for their lives deserve respect and dignity of reporting the truth and anything less would be SHAMEFUL.   

 

God bless the families of these victims.  Please continue to pray for them as they go about the hard task of burying their loved ones or sitting by their bedside praying for their recovery.

 

Please listen to the father of the precious little girl who died yesterday.  What a marvelous man he is and my heart breaks for his loss.

 

[tamara stephenson]

I have watched in sadness as the events have unfolded in Arizona.  that was a sick young man who went on a rampage and killed innocent people.  While I disagree with his politics, I thought President Obama's speech at the memorial summed up how i was feeling, and it honored those who died and were injured.  we should be focusing on the victims and their families, not placing blame on those who had nothing to do with what that man did.

[John Harvel]

When I was a kid and TV was a fairly new phenomenon, there was only 12 or 13 channels on the set and not all of them worked. On the three major networks, you would get the national evening news cast. I guess people would have their favorite news anchor and lock in on a network. What was amazing to me, even at a young age, was how I could change the channels and get the same news story on all three channels. It was almost as if there was some form of central planned execution of synchronization of all three networks. They would use the same words for the same story at the same time. You could practically change between the three channels and not miss any of the story.

 

I'm sure some of you can relate to what I'm saying.

 

Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Mike Walace, you name it. Someone, everyone had a favorite and hung on their every word. Are you beginning to see where I'm going with this.? Later in life, it's been confirmed to me that most all these men leaned heavily Marxist. The News Media hasn't changed, you have. You have taken off those rose colored glasses and taken a contrarian view on, as Walter would say,"that's the way it is".

 

I don't watch the news, buy the news paper or even listen to talk radio that much. Ya, I scan for headlines, listen for breaking news or current events. But when it comes any particular source, you already know what the spin will be and how they are going to beat it to death with "that's the way it is". 

 

Maybe it's been easy for me with my resist authority attitude, but if you focus too much on their words and stories, your distracted from the big picture. You may think the news media has changed over the years but it hasn't. As soon as I heard the congresswoman's shooter had three names, I knew where the story was headed. It seems you always learn the middle name of lone assassins surrounded by great conspiracy. It's always easy to get bogged down in these right - left debates. 

Isn't that interesting how it all works? Truth doesn't always come from information and wisdom comes from not understanding all that you know.

[Ernest Lephart]

The truth is like a light house viewed from every direction. With each direction come different “views” of the truth. From the white house reporter we get the telescopic view, from the local reporter the microscopic view, and from those in between we get the arms length view. We also have the view from the left, the right, the center, those on the front of the bus and finally those on the back of the bus where I always wanted to set. I looked up the definition of news in every instance was cited information not conjecture, opinion, or belief. Just information facts that’s it, undisputable recent facts and current events that shape our world not ideas, estimations, or suppositions.

The Tea Party nor Sarah Palin are to blame for this hideous display of senseless violence that erupted in Arizona. If anyone is to blame for the action of a deranged individual it is the press. Yes the press those that inflame the public for the purpose of getting higher ratings, more viewers, and more subscribers. I blame you the media because you only show the negative side of every situation on the so called news every day. How many of you investigative reporters are guilty of sensationalism. How many of you during a horrible situation gone wrong step in to mitigate it rather than look for the angle to escalate the situation in hopes of getting the exclusive story. Then after people’s lives are shattered you are off to the next story with out a thought or any courteous remembrance of how you might spin things in a positive direction this time rather than the negative.


When you shot pictures, draw pictures, and look at pictures or views you have no choice but to label these views. A person has to give and have perspective to communicate meaning. In doing so you automatically have an effect on the viewers mind you are setting the circumstance they are going to expect or clarifying the event. By choosing to snap the photograph or draw the picture you are having an effect on the future by saving your perspective of that event at that moment. Then by writing the title for the event you are again setting the frame of mind for the viewer’s mood of the events you have captured. You could title the above circumstance as deranged mentally ill person kills (however many) instead you start off implicating the Tea Party and Sarah Palin. The media bias toward anti gun, anti second amendment, and treating President Obama with kid gloves is not fair and unbiased. Let’s put the blame where it belongs back on the media. Report the news stop trying to shape public opinion. Just give us the facts and trust the people to figure out for them selves who is to blame.

[Roy G Callahan]

Right on Joan. The folks who rule us keep hoping we forget. I'm glad t see not all of us do. :)

[Joan Reynolds]

I am amazed at the rush to a moment of silence, the flags at half mast, the president acknowledging an act of violence; not that it shouldn't be done, but I hardly remember any of this when we lost all those people in Ft Hood to an Islamic terrorist. It seemed like the media hardly acknowledged an event had taken place worthy of note. I only wish they would be as accountable  for the behavior and scare tactics they are continually throwing out, incorrect as they always prove to be, as they are willing to lump every bad person immediately into a tea cup!

[Beth Korey]

The liberal media is foaming at the mouth to turn this into an anti-conservative, anti-tea party, Sarah

Palin circus.  Even though there have many documented accounts of his abhorrent behavior and his

radical beliefs and actions, I have not heard one of the media correct their "opinions" (certainly not

accurate reporting) about their statements that the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, conservative talkers were stirring these mentally sick people to such actions.   We do need to pray for all the victims and their families, but we also need to pray for our country that is in very deep trouble.  And I DO agree,

why wasn't this man on the FBI radar when he had exhibited such behavior on campus?

[Kay Ragan Durden]

Thank you Billie for putting into words what we all think.    And yes Cillia, he, the Pres. did go on and stand for about 90 sec with all the folks still in DC.  On this He did good.  Keep praying like Billie said for them.

[Wellford C. Reed, Jr]

Where was the FBI? I thought they were re-tasked after 9/11 to be a proactive force to protect us from terrorist and others who planned to do harm to our citizens and our political leaders. This guy was blatant in his intentions for 3+ years and no one stopped him. Our representatives should be finding out why the FBI failed on this, if they don't there will be more of these events.

[Cilla Whitcher]

I was out shopping when I heard about this on the radio.  Sheppard Smith (Fox News) was speaking with Rep or Sen Lopez from AR and one of the first things out of her mouth was the rabble rousing of the Tea Party and of course Smith did not come back with the question " Do you know that the Tea Party was involved in the event?".  We find out that this was some young man with many apparent problems, as per his "friends" and classmates at college.  I wish someone from any news (I use this term lightly) venue would ask Ms. Lopez it she still thinks the Tea Party was involved.  Also I could be wrong but did the President go on the air waves and ask for a moment of silents (at 11:00 am today) when all our heros were gunned down in Texas?  I've looked around the internet but can't find any evidence of this.  Any one know?

[Anita Thompson]

Was a drug screen done on this murderer?  Several of his associates spoke of his drug use.  The real debate should be about the consequences of legalizing marijuana and other mind altering drugs.  Most recent mass killings were perpetrated by the mentally unstable.  How many of them were illegal drug users?