All eyes on Virginia Tech murders
By Global Journalist Staff Posted Jul 1 2007
On April 16, 2007, Blacksburg, Va. became forever frozen in a moment of tragedy when 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty were shot and killed on campus. Immediately, the international media descended on the small college town, and the heinous nature of the crime provoked front-page coverage on more than 1,000 publications across the globe. Their responses ranged from viscerally critical to supportive and sympathetic. To provide international context to a national tragedy, Global Journalist offers a small sample of clips from around the world:
“Why subtly encourage the next shooter to break a record? I’ve been concerned for a long time that one of the consequences of the intense and constant news coverage of these events is that the perpetrators become immortalized.”
— Mike DeGiorgi, Roanoke Times, Blacksburg, Va., April 18
By the desensitising standards of routine American gun violence, yesterday’s shootings at Virginia Tech university were shocking only in their scale. Over more than 20 years, Americans have got grimly used to a ritual that plays out on the cable news every few months . . . It’s so familiar you could write the script yourself. Only the names change — Jonesboro, Columbine, Lancaster County and now Virginia Tech. And the numbers.
— Gerard Baker, The Times, London, April 18
“In their coverage of the university bloodshed, Russian media outlets focus on [the] almost unlimited arms trade in the United States, so the majority of the public is sure that is the root of the evil. True, when just anyone can get a weapon, we Russians have ample reasons to cite an old sinister joke: ‘He who shoots first, laughs best.’ Russian online discussions also point to the American way of life and youth mentality.”
— RIA Novosti political commentator Boris Kaimakov, Moscow, April 19
“Educational institutions everywhere must consider whether their admirable preference for seeking to cope with those who seem to be disturbed “in house” is the wisest course of action when, in the most extreme circumstances, others could suffer if outside authorities are not brought in quickly. Much of this desperate tragedy has been reported as if it were another “only in America” episode. That is far too complacent an assumption to make.”
— The Times, London, April 20
“The U.S. is reaping what it sows. It has become a violent society that condones preventable death and should not be surprised when wholesale death visits it.”
— Coenie Kukkuk, Business Day editorial, South Africa, April 19
“The relevant and pertinent question is not why are there so many guns rather it is why has society begun to produce individuals who are willing to commit such atrocities?”
— Dave Diss, Canberra Times, Glengowrie, Australia, April 20
“I see that the Virginia Tech gun club said that if students were allowed to carry guns, so many people needn’t have died. I can just imagine what might happen. People would be randomly shooting just because they had a gun in their hand. Ricochets all over the place. It would be a microcosm of the American dream — or nightmare.”
— Douglas Frame, London-Free Press, Ontatio, April 21
“I hope that we would each not wait for our own Singapore version of a campus shooting in order to take this problem seriously. To address this, everybody needs to be involved. The gaming industry could practise more self-censorship, government regulators could apply a much higher levy on such games and parents (not just grandparents) must be allowed to spend time with children to impart the right values to them.”
— Bernard EE KUO Wei, The Strait Times, Singapore, April 19
“Virginia Tech … was swift to set up a centre for family and friends, as well as a centre for the news media in its Alumni Hall into which reporters from around the world co ntinue to stream and ask questions for which there are few answers at this time.”
— Thane Burnett and Donna Marie Artuso, Edmonton Sun, Canada, April 17
“Many Koreans were dumbfounded and felt ashamed when they learned a Korean student shot dead more than 30 people at the university … Apparently, behind these reactions is a sense of collective guilt the Korean people feel about the heinous crime committed by a fellow Korean. Koreans, having traditionally been trained to think of themselves as members of a family, a group and a nation, rather than as individuals, have shouldered collective responsibility for the slayings and feared Koreans residing in the United States would soon be targets of reprisal attacks in an ethnic conflict.”
— The Korean Herald, April 21