I live in Denver.
When I left for work at 4:30 this morning, the teevee news had already switched from the usual, early-morning national feed to the local news.
When I came home at 2:30 this afternoon, the teevee stations had pre-empted all regular programming and were running "news" about the movie-theater shooting.
Except it wasn't news. It was a constant loop of the teevee talking heads standing in various locations around Aurora, regurgitating the same information they'd been repeating all day.
The only real change has been the body count.
At least here in Denver it seems that nothing at all happened anywhere else in the world.
Right now Governor Hickenlooper is giving the same platitudes politicians have been giving across the country: how tragic it is; about how we all must pull together; how wonderful the first responders were.
Just preceding Gov. Hick, a talking head excitedly reported that a CNN reporter was being tended by paramedics, having collapsed on the blacktop after standing around waiting for something, anything to happen that would justify his being there -- the heat and high altitude got to him.
We've had interview after interview with witnesses, stating and restating the same information.
The shooter himself, whatever his mental health status must have had, at the most basic level, the attitude of "look at me! look at me!"
And now all these people, from newscasters to politicians to witnesses to survivors to family members are taking the opportunity to shove their faces in front of a camera, their mouths in front of a microphone, in an attempt to latch onto the shooter's infamy and hold the public's gaze as long as possible.
And in a year we'll have the anniversary retrospective -- and many of the same people will repeat their performances. And they'll do it on the two year, and five year, and ten year, anniversary. They'll be the "professional victims", ready to trot out their story at any opportunity.
We've seen it before. The same thing happened with Columbine.
I'm finding the entire display as disgusting this time as I did the last time.
Just stop it. If you have no news, then stop flapping your face. By using this sick person's scream for attention to gain exposure for yourself, you're not "reporting" -- you're part of the problem.