Melanie Sill’s Post

View profile for Melanie Sill, graphic

Independent journalist and former news executive

A comment on #journalism surrounding an incident no one of any political party or belief should accept. A sign of the mindset of our culture and our #USPol #press is how much focus now is on the motive of the Trump assassination attempt, and not the method. People become angry and violent for many reasons; now, thanks to changes in our laws and culture, they also have easy access to weapons for mass killing or long-range shooting and can carry them in public with little restriction. #Journalists could help report and inform discussion of this aspect, along with expressions of disapproval from political officials and more details about what happened and how, but many outlets seem to think they've been there, done that. It's early yet and so much room for substance.

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John Newby

Founder - TRULY-LOCAL / Publisher / Speaker / Columnist / Community, Chamber & Business Strategist

1mo

Figured it wouldn’t take very long for someone to start talking about how the weapon made him do it. How stupid are these people? I’m 10 pounds overweight, damn those forks. Nothing better than making the innocent defenseless against those that will get guns if the want them anyway. Not sure the criminals would obey your gun laws.

Mike McGill

President at WaterPIO

1mo

Covered the national press corps for six years. The coverage is exactly where it should be, on the shooter, his motive - which could be acceleration as much as elimination - and how he was able to get such a clean shot at the former President and current GOP nominee. It’s not a sign of our culture to focus on the shooter and motives. That’s where criminal investigations are focused first, and where coverage of the Kennedy assassination, the attempt on Reagan’s life, and the attempts on Ford and Wallace lives went before this attempt on Trump’s life. And that coverage will include reporting of how he got the gun.

I would agree in most cases, but this young man seemed more deranged than policitally motivated. Neither giving to ActBlue nor registering as a republican smacks of extremism. Maybe just an angry young man looking for his 15 minutes of fam to be his last on earth. . .

D. P. Snyder

Writer | Literary Translator from Spanish | Editor | Co-Chair PEN America Translation Committee | Member: ALTA, Author's Guild, LAJSA, EFA

1mo

On target as always, Melanie. Means, motive, and opportunity are always the basic questions to ask about any crime. Here the question marks are on motive and opportunity. But there is another important discussion we need to have that Joe Biden put on the table with his comments from the Oval: The rise of political violence in this always violent country and its use as a tool by the GOP. We must face the urge to violence in this nation and we never have. As someone tweeted a couple of days ago, imitating Biden's propensity to mix up words: "In all this violence, there is no room for Democracy."

PA is an.open carry state....THIS IS WHY IT IS NOT A GHOD IDEA

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