The Virginia Tech Shooting and Orwell

posted by The Vidiot @ 4:32 PM Permalink

I'm reading Orwell's 1984 right now. I just started it so I'm at the very beginning where he's talking about how they revise and redo all the old newspapers, books, magazines, over and over again so that there are no contradictions ever. All of history is constantly rewritten.

As I follow through the tragic story of the Virginia Tech shooting, the stories keep changing. First, he had no expression on his face. Then he had a blank smile, now I just read somewhere that he maniacally laughed after every shot. First we read he had sanded off the serial numbers on the guns, then we find there was a receipt for a glock in his backpack. First we read that there was no connection to an earlier bomb threat, then we find out there was a bomb threat note by his body. (Remind anyone of the 9/11 fire proof passport?)

I'm not saying there's any conspiracy here, but there does some to be a lot of bad reporting. In the rush to get the story out before anyone else, the result is a really Orwellian palimpsest of information.

Labels: journalism, virginia tech shooting