Useless...

Excuse the lack of timeliness- this was written a week ago on a plane from New York to London.

In the wake of the shooting tragedy in Tucson I have been reading as much coverage of the event and the fall-out from the arrest of Jared Loughner in the US media as possible. The luxury of being in the US in the days since the incident have been enlightening to say the very least. I have been able to follow a story that I may not have paid much attention to if I were at home in Australia. The way the incident and the political discussions that have arisen from the tragedy have been absolutely eye-opening.

On the day after the shooting I read, absolutely dumbfounded, of the 'murderous shooter', 'viciously gunning down his 'helpless victims'. I have never read such biased journalism. The coverage was thorough yes, but having recently sat through a media-law unit where the main point stressed was DON'T SLANDER ANYONE, EVER it was difficult to read the representation of the (at the time 'alleged') shooter Jared Loughner. He had been arrested at the scene of the shooting so there was little doubt that he was/is guilty of the shootings but I still couldn't help but feel descriptions of him as a 'loner freak' was going a bit far.

That was until the chilling mugshot of Loughner was released. I urge you to see it because there is truly a story in this image. The caricature of the 'deranged killer' that was painted in those early articles was well and truly given a visual back up with this image. The face does not look like your average 22 year old. Hell I'm 2 weeks shy of 22 and I hope I look a little more together than Loughner does.

What saddens me most about this image is the polarising nature of it. The 'deranged killer' is almost certainly going to have a trial by media- that is to say if he has a trial at all. And I don't blame people for thinking 'he's a danger to society, lock him up immediately" from simply looking at this image- it is deliberately disturbing. But I think, more than anything, the image lends itself to the circus that has become to aftermath of the tragedy itself being played out across newspapers and visual broadcasts. Now we have the head 'freak' in a debacle that is spiralling out of control, with a collection of clowns in the media following his every move. What is exceptionally interesting is the reaction Sarah Palin has had to the tragedy and the head-strong defence she has initiated for herself against the 'blood libel' that some critics have created in suggesting she is somewhat to blame for the tragedy. (See her recorded speech on her Facebook page).

Although I find Sarah Palin to be (I'll try and put this in language she'd understand) "reprehensible", I do tend to agree with her notion that placing the blame of her for this tragedy is wrong and misguided. She may be the borderline Anti-Christ but she did not tell Jared Loughner to go down to the mall and gun-down Gabrielle Giffords. What has happened in the media, as so often does in times of great tragedy, is meaning has been sought in a situation where, sadly, no meaning may ever be found. Meaning in this instance has endeavoured to be found through blame.

It is no one's fault that Loughner did what he did other than Loughner himself. I am not playing down the tragedy, the opposite in fact, I am merely addressing the fact that what Arizona and Americans now face is a seemingly meaningless loss of life and meaningless destruction. Loughner has still not suggested any political motivation for the attack so turning on politics or politicians to lay blame upon for the shooting is useless. Perhaps he will one day tell someone what made him make up his mind to act so recklessly, but if he doesn't, what I hope is that angry grief does not turn into angry retaliation.