Herald down-played mass shooting stories

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 31, 2021

The prediction of mine and many other knowledgeable individuals on the topic of violence has come true. Thank gosh it took some time before our presses started to put the horrendous mass violent crime stories hidden in the final pages of their papers.

I was appalled, but not surprised, to read on page A6 of the 10-page March 23 Herald: “Police: 10 people killed at Colorado supermarket.” This “by the way“ story about 10 of my fellow United States residents being massacred was tucked away at the end of our community newspaper was alarming and appalling.

Your readers are reluctantly beginning to understand that mass gun killings are here to stay. But does our press now have to support that those mass or serial killings are just “oh-hum news and maybe if there is room in the newspaper we will slip the story into print?”

I know the story is not a local one, but rather it was a mass carnage case located somewhere else in our United States, so maybe that, along with other upcoming mass bloodbath events are now so common our presses see them as just ”Oh-hum” articles? But from us strong and behavioral health advocates, please from now on do not belittle those murdered victims who died because they just wanted to get out and about and do some every day and much needed grocery shopping.

Just using one’s humanistic and empathic feelings alone should be enough to push these monstrous events front and center and not become “by the way” stories in all our major papers.

Chuck Wright

Mill Creek