I will preface this by stating that I place the ultimate responsibility for the heinous act of savagery that took place in Uvalde, Texas on the perpetrator. Even so, I believe that the political left enables and encourages these types of horrific attacks through irresponsible and sensationalist reporting.
Some of the motivation for this is simple profit. So-called “news” programs, especially since the advent of cable news and the 24-hour news cycle, has become more entertainment than news. Networks are always looking for something to entice viewers, which in turn attracts advertisers. The more emotionally-charged, lurid, and graphic a story is, the more appealing it is to network executives. We have strayed far from NBC’s 15-minute Camel News Caravan of 1949-1956, with its simple, direct, matter-of-fact reporting of legitimate news items.
But profit is not the only motivation which drives this sensationalist reporting. It is certainly no secret that the major news outlets are firmly under the control of left-wing radicals, and that they act as the de facto propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. The left wastes no time in gleefully politicizing every act of gun violence to advance their radical anti-Second Amendment agenda.
Although I can cite no study to confirm my belief, to me it is glaringly obvious that the type of incessant and histrionic reporting that we see after every mass shooting event encourages those who are mentally, emotionally, and morally defective to commit additional such acts. Few things titillate a sociopathic and narcissistic personality like knowing that he can achieve undying fame (well…infamy, but that’s all the same to the sociopath), that everyone will know his name and his face, that he will have his own Wikipedia page, that he and his actions will be studied and cited for many decades.
If a potential shooter knew that his actions would be reported briefly and simply, that he would be dismissed as “a mentally disturbed person” and that his name would not even be mentioned, it seems far less likely that he would choose to carry out this sort of attack.
As the left ramps their irresponsible reporting to ever greater levels in an attempt to maintain political power, as they advance their anti-gun agenda by exploiting the victims of this gruesome crime, as they attempt to blame decent and law-abiding gun owners, they are fertilizing the ground for the next crop of mass murderers. While they pretend to mourn the tragic loss of life, they are in fact dancing gleefully at the political opportunity this provides. They do not care that their actions will cause more innocent deaths; for the left, that is a small price to pay for political power.