MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough weighed in Monday morning on the debate over whether the shooter at the Oregon community college should be named by news organizations.
Scarborough, a former GOP member of Congress, said he wished shooters in mass killings could go unnamed to deprive the shooter of any additional attention.
A shooting at Umpqua Community College on Thursday morning left 10 dead, including the shooter, and nine others injured. The shooter, whose death was ruled a suicide, was identified as Chris Harper-Mercer.
Douglas County (Oregon) Sheriff John Hanlin, whose office is investigating the massacre, has said that he would not give Harper-Mercer’s name. Initial news reports cited unnamed government officials when reporting it.
Some Fox News hosts have also said they will not to use the shooter’s name on-air.
The topic was discussed as part of a larger conversation about the shooting on “Morning Joe,” during which Scarborough said that he wished the shooter’s name could be withheld.
“And there are no easy answers to any of these questions,” he said. “The one thing I noticed is this guy knew that if he did this, things like this would happen and he would get recognized.”
“I think, in part, it is an effort for people to get attention,” Scarborough said. “I really wish we could stop giving the names of these people who are committing these heinous crimes, in large part for the attention. Because they go out in their twisted minds as folk heroes.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” discussion on the shooting:
You mean as long as the shooter is a white guy. I never heard him say the same thing about the shooter who killed the two news reporters in Virginia
We should probably ignore them entirely. Don’t even report on any shootings at all. Maybe even make it illegal unless the NRA first approves a story.
Yeah. That will do the trick. If the MSM “just stops giving them publicity” that will stop irrational, delusional, and insane people from killing other people.
Sometimes the hubris of the MSM is just breathtaking.
Shorter Joe: Let’s protect Second Amendment rights by limiting First Amendment rights.
Fucking idiotic. This is so fucking warped and such a huge attempt at deflection.
Shall we stop giving the mass shootings themselves any attention because, well, all that publicity for the incident itself is just giving the perp what he wanted? And let’s never mention the victims, because that’s just holding up his scorecard?
This is all about “sweep it under the rug”, wrapped in a rationalization that’s designed to make us feel like the petty refusal to say the shooter’s name is doing something to prevent the next one by “de-incentivizing” it…you know, so we can sleep at night as WE ACTUALLY DO NOTHING REAL.
This is lip service, window dressing, beating off into a sock. Don’t talk about it. Don’t talk about the person who did it. Don’t talk about his mental illness. Don’t talk about what we could do to stop it. Don’t talk about the victims. Don’t talk about what it says about our society. Don’t talk about the loopholes and problems in the law that facilitate this. Deny it happened. Wish it away. Pretend it’s normal. Don’t talk don’t talk don’t talk just accept accept accept it as a routine, unpreventable and inevitable part of life.
FUCK. THAT.
/grabs bullhorn (drops mic lol)