Morning Updates: How do we deal with video of a murder posted online?
Good morning, Boston. How we intellectually and emotionally grapple with a murder filmed and posted online, Sox fans are angry about an announcer’s dismissal, an MBTA fight for the ages, and the rest of the news you need to know today.
Murder in the age of social media: “The killings [of two Virginia journalists shot to death] appear to have been skillfully engineered for maximum distribution, and to sow maximum dread, over Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones. The video [the suspect] shows is an up-close, first-person execution. It was posted only after his social media accounts had become widely known, while the police were in pursuit of the killer. And unlike previous televised deaths, these were not merely broadcast, but widely and virally distributed, playing out with the complicity of thousands, perhaps millions, of social networking users who could not help watching and sharing.’’ (The New York Times)
How should we feel about watching video of murders? “I watched the video in order to write this article, but you don’t need to. Trust me: It’s genuinely awful — a real-life first-person-shooter. To give it your time makes you feel complicit in the deaths of two innocent people. Of course, for some people out there, that’s a thrill. And, honestly, a part of me wanted to look, wondering how bad it could be. … The videos, when they come, are evidence and, as such, important. They’re also the darkest form of entertainment: testaments to death that make us feel, ever so briefly, alive. We tell ourselves we’re better than that. I’m not so sure.’’ (The Boston Globe)
Dan Rather says it’s time to address gun violence: “Several years ago, Australia dealt with a mass killing by significantly changing its gun laws, and that is a nation with a spirit of rugged individualism and the frontier like the United States. I grew up in the hunting and gun culture of Texas and I do own guns. I do not believe they should be banned. But I do believe we can come up with some common sense solutions.’’ (Mashable)
Red Sox fans are angry that NESN ousted Don Orsillo: “We’re veteran bickerers and dedicated cynics around here – hell, it’s why two sports radio stations are not just sustainable but successful in Boston. We can’t get a consensus on which glove Hanley Ramirez should take to work each day, and yet the support for Orsillo is overwhelming. It says something about the man, I think. It’s a remarkable tribute. The genesis of the consensus and the disappointment is fundamental. You feel like you’ve lost a friend.’’ (Boston.com)
MBTA bus fight reaches WorldStar: “When asked to pay her bus fare last week, a passenger refused and then threw a cup of liquid on the driver before storming off with a young child who accompanied her in Roxbury, an MBTA spokesman told The Boston Globe. The female driver, who officials have not identified, then followed the passenger off the bus, where the two began to fight.’’ (Boston.com)
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Prep school rape suspect says they didn’t have sex: “They were having a good time, Owen Labrie said, making out and rolling around in a secluded room on the campus of their elite prep school. So good, he said, that he thought they might have sex. But as he stood over the 15-year-old half-naked girl, rolling on a condom, he had a sudden change of heart. He called it ‘divine intervention.’ Maybe they shouldn’t do this, he thought. So, he says, they didn’t. … Closing arguments are set for Thursday morning.’’ (Boston.com)
Where Bostonians come from (where we move to): “About 4,500 more people move from New York City to Boston annually than the other way around – but more people leave Boston for Washington, D.C. than arrive here from the nation’s capital.’’ (Boston.com)
The Goodbye: For Throwback Thursday, here are memorable images of the old Boston Garden.
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