Has the media intentionally publicized the most youthful looking picture of Jeff Weise, the gunman who opened fire and killed ten people at Red Lake High School? Does a tragedy like this impact us more if we see outdated pictures depicting the shooter as a child? I wonder. Some reports have said Weise was 15 years old, others say he was 16, and yet another has aged him at 17 years. I’ve taken a look at a wide variety of news sites and have noticed that the most common picture of Weise is this one…
Meanwhile, other sites have shown this picture.
But, from what I can tell, their are 2 pictures of Weise that seem the most accurate. This one…
And this one…
It’s hard to imagine that the boy in the first and second picture is the same boy who described himself here, or the one who posted this nonsense, or who blogged at this site.
There were varying pictures shown of the Columbine shooters, but none of them were as disparate as these. What’s the goal? Is there a goal? What does the media have to gain, if anything? Are we as a society better able to accept tragedies like Red Lake if the murderer looks like someone who could commit the crime? Does it make better news to depict the monster as a child?
I wonder.
Why is the Media Using Red Lake Killer’s Old Pictures?
Bill the PunditGuy has a montage of photographs of Jeff Weise, who murdered ten people, Red Lake High School. He observes that the press seems to always show pictures of him as a kid rather than the much more menacing pictures of him at his current ag…
Double-Shot Thursday For Media Bias
The New York Times and LA Times both discount the opinion of Dr. Cheshire, who argues on behalf of sparing Terri’s life, because he’s “pro-life.” The NYT quotes another doctor, a Dr. Cranston, calling him a “bogus, a pro-life fanatic.”…