Here’s my column from today’s newspaper, on why the recent school shootings shouldn’t cause panic. Featuring Nancy Grace, the dark lord of cable news.

(“Lightning: Is your child in danger?”)

Comments

09 October | 13:47 | Leah

You are so right-on with this column. The knee-jerk TV news reaction is just ridiculous; it's absurd and negligent to have people thinking their children are at immanent risk. If I were looking for a safe place to be, I'd probably head to a school, actually.

09 October | 13:52 | Josh

One other stat I didn't have space to put in: An American child is approximately 40 times more likely to be shot outside of school than on campus.

09 October | 13:58 | Jonny the Friendly Lawyer

Good column. I wish I was the first person to describe the truly awful Nancy Grace as a camel in drag. Do you ever get flak about being a schools/education reporter who doesn't have any kids?

09 October | 14:02 | Josh

Oh, only every five minutes. If I had a nickel for every time someone wrote me an email variant of "Just wait until *you* have kids, you'll think differently" -- I'd have Coke Zeroes until the end of time.

13 October | 8:40 | ckstern

I have to say, I have kids (well, one for now) and I think differently. I don't think you're off target in the column - school shootings aren't the only thing "the media" overblows, either. And I'm about as far as you get from supporting principals and teachers with Glocks. But I'm not convinced our schools are as protected as they could be. (Of course that goes for a lot of areas other than schools as well.)

Comment Preview

said:

Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)