“Economically, they’re just satisfying a demand.”
Good point. If so the unintended consequences are working out for our Dear Leaders.
People here want to know the name so they can crow when it’s Ahmed or Mohammed, and groan when it’s Bob Smith.
Well, the hope it’s a Muslim drives a lot of it on FR specifically, but that’s not all of it; if that’s a touchdown, the perp being gay or an illegal Mexican immigrant is at least a field goal.
And plenty of people want to know if the perp is a marijuana user, etc.
Though the above is hardly unique to FR, of course; I’m sure DU was thrilled to discover the mother was a gun enthusiast.
The info about the perp is only half of it; the other half are “grief junkies” (which seem to me to be almost entirely women) that are into sitting around glued to the TV and watching hours of tearful interviews and children crying and memorial services, etc. Somehow the shared grief makes their own boring and irrelevant lives seem more important.
I was working out in our gym and “Entertainment Tonight” was on the TV with no sound, but no way to change the channel; they devoted something like 20 minutes of the show to Newtown, nothing but slow pans of running children, etc. Also had about 10 minutes of showing celebrities commenting on it-I mean, who gives a crap about how sorry Kristen Stewart is about the tragedy?