The Virginia Tech shooter was a freak, NOT AN ASPIE!! !! !! !! !

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Point. Missed.

Putting emphasis on an alleged diagnosis can lead some to believe that the actions and behaviors of the shooter are shared characteristics amongst any with same or similar diagnosis. More than that, the way some have emphasized it has been reckless to say the least.

Has the media been saying this now? I hope not. I know right away you had idiots like Jack Thompson (and apparently Dr. Phil!?!) blaming video games...even before they knew who the shooter was.

You know, because most 20 year old guys don't play games

I don't think he missed the point. The media's job is to report facts, not politically correct hogwash. If going out and announcing the killer was schizophrenic or autistic is going to cause backlash against said groups, that's not the media's responsibility. If they emphasise it, then they do so not out of recklessness, but out of a desire to tell the truth - and that may well be that the killer's deeds were primarily a result of his condition/s.

It is not simply reporting a diagnosis. It is doing things such as listing it as one of the bullet points in a story, mentioning it once, and following the one-sentence mention which was nothing more than "He was diagnosed as autistic" followed by a sentence saying he was always cold, a quote from his grandmother.

I don't care if his diagnosis is listed. I do care how it is listed. You can tell the truth without making one component seem like the a largely contributing factor to the cause. If my memory serves me well, the diagnosis was reported as having been made around when he was 8. That could be a very incomplete diagnosis. If this is the case, the media has emphasized his mental health with only a portion of the facts.

The part is, we cannot blame the media.

Ok, yeah, one of the pictures this guy took of himself had a reference to a movie.
The truth of the matter is that everytime there is something like this we go around and blame the media, video games, South Park, etc. for casuing this person to turn violent. All they really do is just desensitize you to all the violence, not make you become violent. I myself had played games such as GTA, and to be honest I'm just fine. Therefore, this guy was probably nutzy in the head and didn't have the right resources to take his anger out.

One has to ask...if someone identical to Cho came on here and posted of the issues that those who knew Cho have described...lack of eye contact, loner, speech problems, diagnosis as autistic at 8 etc...would we start refuting that that individual has it? Is it being refuted so hotly simply because of the act he has committed and peoples' wish not to have violent acts associated with having an ASD?

I bet he had reasons.

I agree 100%

Tim

I don't think anyone here has blamed the media for the shootings...

First thing if the kid made it to college he really didn`t have it bad at all. People also tried to
make friends with him but he didn`t want to. He is also sterotyping thinking all Americian high school and college kids are rich jerks.

Anyway the guy is dead now because of his arrogent attitiude so tjats that