Schools have been cancelled, getting gas is an extreme sport, and walking the dog has become a dangerous pastime.
Everyone is scared to death in the Washington metropolitan area, and rightfully so.
There is an irrational man on the loose, with a rifle and pinpoint precision. He’s a sniper, and the media are in love with him.
For the next few months, unless the sniper turning himself in, there will undoubtedly be news coverage of this madman that only parallels that of the O.J. Simpson case.
The media will not stop until everyone who lives within a 50-mile radius of Interstate 95 crouches down at the gas tank and allows their kids to play ball in the house.
Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose said, “When we feel good about [the case], we’ll put it out there . . . but partial is just that, and often times that is just too weak.”
So if the police have nothing to share with the public, the media shouldn’t have a whole lot more to report on than the deaths as they are reported. But leave it to the media. Panic has created pandemonium.
As the sniper continues on his rampage, the media coverage thickens, and the information grows thin.
How much can you speculate on a man hidden in the trees picking people off?
After Sept. 11, and all of the heightened security, America should realize that panic isn’t prevention.
This coverage keeps concerned citizens afraid, and causes frightened people to report anything “suspicious” even if it’s only the boy next door and his water gun.
Life should go on as usual.
If this man is killing people at random- from students to FBI analysts to bus drivers – panic is not going to keep anyone safe.
Madmen, like the sniper, want to stop average people from going about their everyday lives.
He wants America to stare at their televisions blankly as every news station interprets what it meant when he sneezed at the scene of the crime.
The only way to truly walk away without harm is to not give him what he wants, but to continue to do what we want.
Instead of feeding into the media coverage, tune back into regularly scheduled programming.
-Bridget Nance for the Editorial Board.