The circumstances of which are too widely known and tragic to be elaborated upon here.
But I'm going to use this to make a couple of different points.
First, we need to take back ownership of all US owned media in Canada. This should be illegal. Thank Harper for this.
We share the same language, and that makes it easy for the contamination of their stupidity and politics to cross our borders. That their media has been at best an attempt to set the groundwork to colonize us should be now readily apparent. Look at all the half-wit Albertans that voted UCP and want separation from Canada. That is a direct result of their malign and predetermined influence.
But that is not all. In the USA, "News" is entertainment. There is very little in terms of 'reputable' and responsible reporting. It has been known for a long time that publicizing schoolyard shootings normalizes them, and opens the doors to copycats. Every schoolyard shooting since Columbine is a direct result of the media fanfare the first and every subsequent one received.
We don't need that. The incident in Tumbler Ridge should never have been broadcast beyond Tumbler Ridge. The media should have accountability - the same reason they do not publicize suicides should be the same reason they don't publish murders, shouldn't publish incidents of violence, etc. Except in the case of appeals to the public, who might know something, nobody needs to know.
Respect the privacy of the victims and families. Respect the community.
The advertising of violence only promotes more violence.
The second, read through the previous article on the past weeks headlines. None of it of any relevance, all designed to outrage, get a reaction, polarize us. These headlines, while they get a reaction, do not advance us in our lives, with our neighbours, communities, in any way. The "News as Entertainment" model has to go.
"News as Relevant Information" should be the go to. "How will it affect/benefit/ our readers" should be the question on every publishers list. Even CBC - whom I am not entirely impressed with - could learn from this. National news should exclude community tragedies, not publicize them.
We need a wall between us and the dumpster fire blazing south of the border. We've needed it for a long time, to distance ourselves from their mis/disinformation, their imbecilic reportage on everything irrelevant, their "news is a means to sell advertising" sensational approach. They have failed, as a nation, as a country, as a world leader.
If we need content to fill up our televisions there's the UK, Europe, there's Africa and South America, even China, most of which have values that will align a lot closer to ours.
Our Television should be scrubbed of their programs, except in the rare instances where it can be aligned with our cultural values. How this is determined - well, that's no so easy, but it's a talking point that we should get on ASAP. We'll start with it's not hatred of minorities or varying sexualities and lifestyles. We can start with the theory that we're here to help our neighbours and the less fortunate. And there's a lot of places we can go from here.
We can learn from their mistakes and be a lot better. And we should get started, because this is just one of the signs that dumpster fire is spreading north of the border...