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• Monday, April 16, 2007 09:14 PM

  deeply disappointed

  I watched the news coverage this afternoon/evening and was disgusted by how quickly the coverage turned to questions of blame - specifically, blaming the university for what it did or didn't do in the heat of the moment. I saw journalists and their expressions of faux-concern interviewing students who seemed angry or numb. Sometimes their voices were still shaking. Some of them expressed anger at the university, and of course the networks decided that this was the Big Story of the evening.

  I'm even more disappointed that I came to Salon and found the same type of article here. I thought you all were better that this. I came here to get away from that kind of knee-jerk pile-on that is just a step away from taking advantage of the grief and anger of some traumatized students.

  I'm not saying that there won't be any room for blame later. Maybe, when all is said and done, the parties involved can take a look at their procedures and policies and make some changes. But how dare any of us, at this early stage, start making grand proclamations about what went wrong? When the timeline is still so unclear - when the identity of the shooter and the victims haven't even been made public yet - it's the height of arrogance and irresponsibility to take this tack. Would it be too much to ask to actually wait a day or so until we have a more complete picture? Or would that mean missing out on a scoop of some kind? We wouldn't want that.

  Thank heavens the readers seem to be more level-headed than the editors these days.

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