The killing of innocents always brings out the conflicting feelings in me.  I feel rage at the evil that was done and helplessness at not being able to do anything as the horrific drama unfolds.

I feel sorrow for the families of the victims, horror at the suffering the victims themselves must have suffered,  and pity for the unmentioned victims, the family of the shooter, for they are victims also in that they well bear his stigma in his coward’s death.

But sadly for me, in this day and age, I also feel frustration at the politicians and media (bloggers included) who will spin, promote and demagogue away with this event.  What ought to be a shared moment of national sorrow becomes a media circus in what Michelle Malkin has labeled the Blame-the-guns bias watch.

And the sad truth is that as I watched the events unfold, she was totally correct, within hours the first calls for gun control were generated, one at the President’s briefing, another in the promos for the MSNBC Scarborough and Country gun control special.¹

I won’t say that the topic is not relevant, nor that there may or may not be some merit to it, but have we lost our compassion to the point that we have to trample on the dead while the steam still rises form their corpses in order to “scoop” the story?

And already one alleged false report has surfaced from such hasty reporting, that being the false identification of the shooter:²

The Internet rumor mill, chasing down leads on the identity of the Virginia Tech shooter, has been grinding all day. Allah debunks one of those rumors, which Hot Air received, investigated, and debated this afternoon and evening:

He’s not the shooter.

More anti gun reactions at the NYTime and Reuters.

There are some interesting reactions from the blogsphere too.³

Bull Dog Pundit: “In one sentence they say is that it is ‘premature to draw too many lessons,’ yet they then go on to say that stronger laws are needed over ‘lethal weapons,’ even though nothing is known about how he got them.”

The headlines were aghast when CBS announced a racial angle to the new season of Suirvivor:  4 tribes segregted by race.

New ‘Survivor’ Divides Groups by Race

Get ready for a segregated "Survivor." Race will matter on the upcoming season of the CBS show as contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity. That means blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians in separate groups.

The arguments started immediately:

‘Survivor’: racism or ratings?

CBS’ "Survivor" stuck a stick in a beehive and is probably enjoying the loud buzz it has created.

The original vote-them-off-the-island show sets up camp in the Cook Islands for its 13th edition and establishes a new racial divide, at least according to protest groups, when it airs at 8 tonight.

This time the folks in pursuit of the million-dollar pot of gold will be segregated by race and ethnic background. There will be black and white teams as well as Hispanics and Asians competing against one another.

The alarm bells started ringing before the ink was dry on the press release.

"Just plain stupid … and preposterous," John Liu, a Manhattan councilman and member of New York City’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus told The Associated Press.

"It’s not reality TV, it’s racist TV," said a spokesman for Hispanics Across America in a Reuters wire service report.

The group’s founder called it a "cheap and offensive trick" on Yahoo News. "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?" Liu asked in that same story.

My thought at the time?  a)  Who cares and b) PR stunt.  I mean since Survivor is filmed in advance, it is not a "live" reality show, this was a foregone conclusion.  They already did it, so announcing it was just a way to generate ratings.

Stunned" and "dismayed" is how Harry Smith, host of CBS’ "Early Show," described his initial reaction while talking with Probst, who acknowledged some contestants had "some mixed reactions." Smith said there were some groans around the staff coffeepot and a feeling that "Survivor" had gone too far this time.

There is no way I can let the passing of Steve Irwin go unremarked.

My children and I used to spend many the hour watching the Croc Hunter and his antics.  He was an amazing man, with an infectious passion for animals, and a bit of a knack for drama and sensationalism.

And he was a bit of a daredevil, taking chances that we all shook our heads at, knowing he was pushing his luck, and the underlying feeling was that someday his luck would run out.

It did.

He even made sport of it, in a snake bite episode in a Fed Ex commercial.

A lot of people have noted that he died doing what he loved, and would have preferred to die how he did, then to any other way, but to me that’s a kind of meaningless thought.  I mean honestly, I think he would have enjoyed dying of old age, his wife beside him and surrounded by kids and grand kids, like most people would.

I feel sorrow for Terri and his kids, as they will be faced with a barrage of people making that observation, for it almost generates a self destructive nature about their loved one.

And since the deadly accident was videotaped, how long before they will see their beloved’s death on the news and or television and Internet?

They will have to relive this, over and over.  I pray for their strength.  Yes, the world shares their loss, but the world will also be reminding them of it for years to come.

But looking beyond that, there is no doubt that Irwin did love his work, and the "beautiful" creatures he studied.  As I said, he had an almost infectious way of making the most obscure lizard or snake into the most amazing creature.  Where most people saw a man eating lizard suitable for hand bags ans shoes, he saw a thriving creature with a place in the ecosystem, a creature of deadly beauty.

And that is the vision he tried to share with us every week.

The call has been issued for Diane Sawyers resignation over a Primetime special that aired last Friday.  This is a case that illustrates the cold hearted callous disregard for people that the news sometimes exhibits in order to get a "good story."  And their actions have ensured a child abuser gets to go unpunished.

During the filming of a story on dysfunctional step families, ABC cameras caught a beating of a teenage girl by her father on video tape…and did nothing about it….for 4 years

Calls for Sawyer to Resign After Teen Beating Report

The shocking beating of a teenage girl by her father that aired during a Diane Sawyer report about dysfunctional stepfamilies has set off a firestorm.

State police officials in upstate Lake Placid say they are going over the tape of last Friday’s "Primetime" news magazine to determine if charges can be brought against the natural father, a Iraq War military reservist, and the teen’s stepmother.

The investigation — which includes the local Franklin County DAs office, police said — was only part of the fallout from the broadcast.

Outraged viewers have filled up the ABC News Web site’s message board with more that 1,400 messages in the first 36 hours after the broadcast — many calling for Sawyer and the program’s producers to be fired for not going to the authorities immediately.

The beating was caught on videotape recorders that the family — identified as Lynn and Joe Nelson — had allowed ABC News to install in their home for a program on the difficulties stepfamilies have getting along.

This is sickening.  They taped it, saw it and just decided not to do anything about it.  They could have called social services, or the police, but didn’t. 

Are your ratings so much more important then a child’s pain?  Was it worth it to the girl?  Did you pay perhaps her by the bruise?  Or were you secretly hoping for a broken bone maybe?  A little more screaming and blood perhaps?  "Grimace for the camera sweetheart, and make sure the fear looks real….and ACTION!"

The blogging world has been buzzing since Michelle Malkin broke the story about NBC’s Dateline and their story idea:  Catch Muslims being treated badly on hidden camera buy sending stereotypically dressed men to Nascar races.

‘We’re making this as entertainment. But God willing, if this show stays on and people see a woman in that office for a while, I think it will help people become more used to it. It’s certainly about time that we had a few female presidents.’

‘We’re making this as entertainment. But God willing, if this show stays on and people see a woman in that office for a while, I think it will help people become more used to it. It’s certainly about time that we had a few female presidents.’