Shameless Sensationalism
Last Friday, at about 1:30 am, Tiffany Marie Souers was found dead. One of her old roommates found her body at a Clemson apartment complex about 10-15 minutes away from campus (I have two friends at church who live in that building). Police and investigators have yet to find any evidence of struggle or forced entry. The only major detail that has been uncovered thus far is the cause of death. Tiffany was apparantly strangled by a bikini strap.
When I first heard this, both on the web and at Sunday School, I was both saddened and afraid. The reasons for my feelings are pretty self-explainatory. Deaths like these are always terrible, but they hit hard when they happen on college campuses. It makes us students a little more aware of how vulnerable we are. We like to believe that once we're in the real world, we're invincible. Nothing bad can happen to us. But when something like a death on or in the proximity of our home away from home happens, it shakes us up. Suddenly (if only for a short time), we don't take our safety for granted anymore. We take an extra few minutes to look around us in leaving our dorms. We double check the locks on our doors. We start using well-lit roads at night, or carry a flashlight if necessary. If there's any positive in a death like this, it's losing our false sense of security. We are vulnerable. We can be hurt or killed. It's not a pleasant thing to think about and I know its constantly on our parents' minds. We start to understand how they feel.
But my sadness was two-fold.
I literally groaned aloud when FoxNews grabbed hold of this story and turned it into "The Bikini Slaying." (watch them trademark that label and demand a dollar for every news market that uses it). Now it's guaranteed to catch more attention across the country than it ever would otherwise. All because of the 'spicy' name. Sex sells, right? Not in murder cases, it doesn't. Anyone who possesses even an ounce of compassion will tell you that much.
And that's not all. They've already called the person (there's no hard evidence yet whether the perpetrator was a boy or girl) responsible for Tiffany's murder a "potential serial killer." All this despite the fact that the solicitor has gone on record stating they have NO reason to believe it's the work of a serial killer. Near as they can figure, it's someone close to Tiffany. A classmate or an acquaintence. That's why they are searching her computer records, particularly Facebook, for clues to anyone that was in contact with her.
I don't appreciate it when the news media takes an incident like this and tries to turn it into something it's not just to suit their interests. It's embarassing, it's degrading, and I can only imagine the effect that it's having on Tiffany's family and friends. Her loved ones who are fighting to protect her identity (because knowing the media, the next place they'll look is the victim's personal life. Troubled past, emotional scars, etc. Anything that could've led into this. And if they can't find anything there, they'll turn their attention on the family. It happened with the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping four years ago) and the person that she was. It's a gross invasion of privacy and it represents a blatant misrepresentation of what is at heart a small town murder (not in the eyes of her family, of course, but in a larger context. People in California, say, would never know of a murder in Central, SC, until FoxNews slaps the "Bikini Slaying" label on it, and voila! Instant appeal). Suddenly, it's everybody's case. Experts and non-experts alike call in their takes. Opinions are heard and given more weight than the actual facts. And the sensationalism gets worse and worse until the case just quietly goes away (i.e., the media moves on to the next juicy headline). I wish the Souers family didn't have to wait for their daughter's funeral or the capture of her killer for it to happen. I wish the news guys could put themselves in the grievers' shoes. Just for a minute. Remember what it feels like.
At the end of the day, I understand why sensationalism happens. People have to run a business. They're human beings too, and despite our attempts to villify them, at heart they're no different from any of us. If I waste my time making enemies of the people I'm supposed to be loving into the kingdom, I'm failing my Lord and Savior. I am "beating the air," as Paul would say.
Sensationalism is how they've stayed in the game for so long; it's been their M.O. from the beginning. A murder doesn't grab you until it's been labeled (when the harsh truth is, unless you are a member of the bereaved circle, you have no business trying to insert yourself into it). It's their job to sell news, to make people watch. Whether it's based on facts or opinions.
I still don't like it, though.
Anyway, I'm done ranting now.
When I first heard this, both on the web and at Sunday School, I was both saddened and afraid. The reasons for my feelings are pretty self-explainatory. Deaths like these are always terrible, but they hit hard when they happen on college campuses. It makes us students a little more aware of how vulnerable we are. We like to believe that once we're in the real world, we're invincible. Nothing bad can happen to us. But when something like a death on or in the proximity of our home away from home happens, it shakes us up. Suddenly (if only for a short time), we don't take our safety for granted anymore. We take an extra few minutes to look around us in leaving our dorms. We double check the locks on our doors. We start using well-lit roads at night, or carry a flashlight if necessary. If there's any positive in a death like this, it's losing our false sense of security. We are vulnerable. We can be hurt or killed. It's not a pleasant thing to think about and I know its constantly on our parents' minds. We start to understand how they feel.
But my sadness was two-fold.
I literally groaned aloud when FoxNews grabbed hold of this story and turned it into "The Bikini Slaying." (watch them trademark that label and demand a dollar for every news market that uses it). Now it's guaranteed to catch more attention across the country than it ever would otherwise. All because of the 'spicy' name. Sex sells, right? Not in murder cases, it doesn't. Anyone who possesses even an ounce of compassion will tell you that much.
And that's not all. They've already called the person (there's no hard evidence yet whether the perpetrator was a boy or girl) responsible for Tiffany's murder a "potential serial killer." All this despite the fact that the solicitor has gone on record stating they have NO reason to believe it's the work of a serial killer. Near as they can figure, it's someone close to Tiffany. A classmate or an acquaintence. That's why they are searching her computer records, particularly Facebook, for clues to anyone that was in contact with her.
I don't appreciate it when the news media takes an incident like this and tries to turn it into something it's not just to suit their interests. It's embarassing, it's degrading, and I can only imagine the effect that it's having on Tiffany's family and friends. Her loved ones who are fighting to protect her identity (because knowing the media, the next place they'll look is the victim's personal life. Troubled past, emotional scars, etc. Anything that could've led into this. And if they can't find anything there, they'll turn their attention on the family. It happened with the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping four years ago) and the person that she was. It's a gross invasion of privacy and it represents a blatant misrepresentation of what is at heart a small town murder (not in the eyes of her family, of course, but in a larger context. People in California, say, would never know of a murder in Central, SC, until FoxNews slaps the "Bikini Slaying" label on it, and voila! Instant appeal). Suddenly, it's everybody's case. Experts and non-experts alike call in their takes. Opinions are heard and given more weight than the actual facts. And the sensationalism gets worse and worse until the case just quietly goes away (i.e., the media moves on to the next juicy headline). I wish the Souers family didn't have to wait for their daughter's funeral or the capture of her killer for it to happen. I wish the news guys could put themselves in the grievers' shoes. Just for a minute. Remember what it feels like.
At the end of the day, I understand why sensationalism happens. People have to run a business. They're human beings too, and despite our attempts to villify them, at heart they're no different from any of us. If I waste my time making enemies of the people I'm supposed to be loving into the kingdom, I'm failing my Lord and Savior. I am "beating the air," as Paul would say.
Sensationalism is how they've stayed in the game for so long; it's been their M.O. from the beginning. A murder doesn't grab you until it's been labeled (when the harsh truth is, unless you are a member of the bereaved circle, you have no business trying to insert yourself into it). It's their job to sell news, to make people watch. Whether it's based on facts or opinions.
I still don't like it, though.
Anyway, I'm done ranting now.
posted by david @ 3:24 PM
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