I thought I'd mention a quick thing about Wednesday's shooting at a salon in Seal Beach. Seal Beach is the town that's separated from Long Beach by an invisible county line that floats over the middle of the San Gabriel River.
The estranged ex-husband of one of the salon's customers entered the establishment and shot and killed seven of the people inside the crowded business. Another victim was shot and is in critical condition. The shooter, upon leaving the salon, saw a man waiting in his SUV and shot him in the head as well, brining the death toll up to eight, with the morbid possibility of number nine actually happening if that lady's condition worsens.
It's being called the worst shooting in Orange County's history. The prosecutor is pushing for the death penalty.
I just wanted to mention, for the sake of a cynic's perspective, that had this salon shooting occurred in Artesia, or Compton, or Torrance, would the media coverage of the tragedy be of this weepy nature? If the victims weren't well-heeled ladies with hair the same golden shade as their skin?
I believe the answer to your question is yes... it would have gotten major coverage for a brief time even if it had happened in one of those neighborhoods. The reason I say that is now we are in the age of 24 hour total connection to the world and something new needs to be reported every minute. Not everything is newsworthy... one day last week, we were teased for hours to stay tuned to the 10 o'clock news for this amazing story of how simple everyday signs actually meant deeper "evil" meanings. So since I was staying up anyway I learned that sometimes a tweety bird on the mirror or on the window COULD mean the owner of the car dealt in meth... and a religious statue on the dash COULD also mean the person was a dealer of some other evil drug... after all the "teasing" the entire story didn't last 30 seconds and was a total waste of my time, at least I wasn't staying up for that supposed nugget of news...
ReplyDeleteBut to return to your question Yes, it would make the news circuit, but I don't think it would have the legs that this story does, and for the reason you have stated.