Last week’s shooting in Granada Hills became the latest in a series of assaults nationwide. Some media critics say extensive media coverage only serves to inspire more violence. So the Business Journal asks:
Are you concerned about the saturation coverage of events like the Granada Hills shooting?
Peter Pergelides
Restaurateur
Europa
Yeah, I am, of course I am. It always concerns me for several reasons. I’m concerned about all the hype because it sends out a message to someone who’s predisposed to doing something like that. I’m also concerned about the privacy of the victims. I just came back from Europe, where attitudes about guns and the media are so different. These kinds of things just don’t happen there.
Kita S. Curry [pic6-21lanm]
Executive Director
Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center
I actually think it’s been helpful. It’s prompted us to look at the increasing danger posed by virulent hate groups, which has been amplified by the Internet. It also pointed out the susceptibility of vulnerable minds to such groups, especially young children, the disaffected and the mentally ill. Also, it made clear that jailing the mentally ill without additional treatment is shortsighted. We need gun control, especially of automatic weapons.
Scott Anthony
Actor, Comedian, Massage Therapist
It’s like the media has conditioned us to expect it. We want to know everything that happens, but the media has been going berserk with the coverage. It’s on the news 24 hours at a time. It was on the whole time I was at the gym today, for two hours. It gets kind of ridiculous.
Joseph Molina
President
JMPR Public Relations Inc.
Yes, because in most cases it’s hard to fathom that anyone could come up with those ideas completely on their own they’re influenced from somewhere. These are not exactly the kind of people who read Time, Newsweek, or the daily newspapers. They’re getting most of their information from television, with the constant barrage of police activity and attention. They want the world stage, they want a stage for their rage, and television provides them that. This is the challenge of the free press. We are the victims of our own coverage. If there was a news blackout, you would see a decrease in these events.
Jessie Robertson [pic6-21lanm]
New Business Development
Entertainment Division
Interior Systems Inc.
I do understand and accept the freedom of the press, and that the public has a right to know it’s important. But to preempt regular programming is wrong. What we’ve done is exacerbate the problem and glorify the criminal. He gets all the attention, and it’s minimized the victims and the families and the community at large.
