Did a guy not go in and shoot up his own church recently?

[vi5]

Did I just dream this story? Honestly considering it happened after the whole Atlanta court shooting, we're still hearing about that one every 5 minutes but yet this other one had it's media coverage die down in a day. Yeah, I know the one has a slightly happier ending to it, but still.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Who knows.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

1. I heard a little bit about that.

Wasn't it in Minnesota or Wisconsin? And the service was being held at a hotel? I only saw a blip on the local news about it - they never went into detail. :shrug:

[meisje]

2. Simple, they don't want to paint the Jesus freaks as Jesus freaks

[walldude]

26. LMAO... that was funny meisje....

[rockedthevoteinMA]

3. Yup this is it. Four whole sentences.

Gunman shoots, kills seven, himself at hotel

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A gunman opened fire Saturday at a church service being held at a hotel, killing seven people before taking his own life, authorities said.

Officers found four people and the gunman dead when they arrived about 1 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel. Three others died later at a hospital, said Daniel Tushaus, chief of the Brookfield Police Department.

The victims were all in the same room at the hotel, Tushaus said. The suspect, a man of about 45 who was armed with a handgun, was affiliated with the church, which had been meeting at the hotel every Saturday morning for four or five years.

Victims at the hotel included two boys ages 15 and 17, a 72-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman. Three men died later at a hospital. Four others were hospitalized.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/11123647.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[htuttle]

4. Here's a thread about it from the WI forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=186x5748

Local news has been saying that the police suspect the shooter was upset with one of the minister's 'end times' sermons recently. I would say so...

[vi5]

6. I mean I know it happened....

...but the disparity in coverage between that and the Atlanta shooter is absolutely absurd.

[northzax]

18. except for the first day

the Atlanta shooter was still at large. That deserved more coverage.

How about the Texas guy who went nuts from his sun-roof last week? How sad is it that we live in a country where going on a shooting spree doesn't even get you a dateline story...how immune can we get?

[Kber]

24. CNN is based in Atlanta isn't it?

Maybe if they were out of Madison we'd here more?

[Lefta Dissenter]

5. it was in Wisconsin

a church gathering at a hotel in Brookfield (west of Milwaukee). This was their regular weekly Saturday service, and the shooter was a member of their congregation. Last I heard, there were eight dead, including the shooter. Unfortunately the number may have gone up since I last heard, since there were numerous others injured and hospitalized. :(

Isn't it swell that our State Legislature is pushing for concealed carry? I'd sure love for more people to be able to haul their guns around. :eyes:

[diamond14]

7. thinking that that White Guy, in the seat next to me in Church COULD

stand up and KILL EVERYONE....that's NOT an image that bush* wants, as OUR soldiers return from KILLING Iraqis....


bush* BASE is the fundi-churches....

these churches MUST be propped up and encouraged to keep the poor Americans in line....can't have any BAD news coming out about bush* BASE supporters...

[Bridget Burke]

8. "Religion captures killer" versus "Religion inspires killer"?

Which story do YOU think the media will push?

[rockedthevoteinMA]

9. Exactly. n/t

[barbaraann]

10. And don't forget about the Church President in Kansas

who apparently has confessed to being a serial killer (Dennis Rader).

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Yes. Last Saturday (An Update)

In a hotel in Wisconsin. It's a church, but no brick & mortar. They just rent out space in a hotel conference room for their services. I think i read they move the services around.

The guy REALLY shot up the place. 10 shots at least. Appears to have targeted the pastor and his family. He was a member of that church, which is a HARDCORE apocalyptic preparatory sect.

The motive is still not known.

On Edit: The Chicago Tribune today, reports that 22 shots were fired and one victim was hit 4 times.
The Professor

[northzax]

19. 21, actually

he stopped to reload.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Black Humor. I Like It

The Professor

[liberalpress]

12. As a broadcast pro for 35 years..

... I think I can give you a bit of insight on what happened. The courthouse shooting was in Atlanta a few blocks away from CNN HQ. They could cover the incident with equipment and personnel in house at a low cost.

The church shooting was in Wisconsin

Once CNN started covering the courthouse shoot, the other news nets had to follow suit to keep competitive.

If a mjopr news net had been located in Wisconsin, both stories would have been covered.

Not everything is about politics... in fact, most things are all about money.

[vi5]

13. Yeah, but this coverage has been going on for a week now...

..I'm not even talking strictly reporting the facts about the shooting. When both happened, both got covered. But the disparity if coverage continuing on a week after this happened is more than a little bit odd. I understand what you're saying and I don't read politics into everything. But in this case it seems to fit at least a little.

[elehhhhna]

15. No blondes with good soundbytes = no story.

[htuttle]

14. The last time big news happened here in Wisconsin

...Was when a UW student faked her own kidnapping.

The major networks bought the local news feeds until they sent their own crews down here. IIRC, they had people here within 48 hours of the reported kidnapping. In fact, I remember when the majors ran a live feed of a search dog sniffing an empty field for almost 5-10 minutes straight (which is an eternity in a broadcast, correct?).

They could easily have bought the local feeds from Milwaukee TV stations, which had extensive coverage. The majors don't need to actually send their own crews to cover something anymore.

[liberalpress]

17. Sadly, the way some news depts think..

...(and I don't work for CNN, so I can't speak for them) once they made the decision to give in-depth coverge to the home story, the other story was secondary, and by the second day, old news.

Besides a live suspect, beats a dead suspect any day.

[htuttle]

21. We're talking about 24 hour a day news networks here

They can only cover one story per day? I notice that the 'Ashley and the Shooter' story hasn't really cut into coverage of the Michael Jackson Trial saga. They seem to be able to cover both stories (and several others) at once.

If you are saying that the cultural narrative of the two stories has NOTHING to do with whether they get coverage (ie., "violent black man talked into surrendering by white christian woman" versus "white christian man starts murdering people during a church service because he's angry about a sermon"), then you are being either disingenuous or naive.

[liberalpress]

25. Look here's the deal..

...a live shooter trumps a dead shooter

A celebrity trumps a shooter

a child molesting celebrity trumps everything else

not disingenuous or naive... it's the way it is...I don't like it but it's the way it is.

"Christian" woman has nothing to do with it.

[SouthernDem2004]

16. Not news because the shooter is dead. Not much else to say.

[liberalpress]

20. Bingo. Next story.

[Catchawave]

22. Here's a great article about the RW MSM....

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/03/con05089.html

Convenient Christianity

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Doug Basham

Regarding the Courthouse shootings in Atlanta last Friday, which resulted in 3 people being killed; and the Church shootings that occurred in Wisconsin the next day on Saturday, wherein seven people were murdered; what I observed yesterday, was the lion’s share of the right wing media’s coverage - overwhelmingly - centered on the Atlanta shootings. Which at first glance struck me as being a little odd, seeing as the Atlanta Courtroom story was an older story (it happened a day earlier than the Church shootings) and resulted in less people being murdered. Both stories were bloody - both involved religion; so why was the older story with fewer people being killed given such preferential treatment. I decided to try and ascertain the answer.

I first took into account the right wing media’s agenda and the message they’re trying to brainwash the American people into believing. I also considered the average right wing viewer’s psyche, and the message they want to be brainwashed into believing, which is essentially, the same message we all would like to believe (we're good people. It’s just that some of us are more, shall we say, grounded and realistic than others, particularly when those “others” are right wing fundamentalist whack jobs).

First of all; the Atlanta story had the one element guaranteed to instantaneously grab the right’s attention, namely, the semen stain element (trust me – when the right tells you it wasn’t about sex with Bill Clinton – they’re lying – it most certainly was about sex). In the Atlanta case, the suspect, Brian Nichols, had already been on trial for rape, and twice, for the same rape. It’s like the old chewing gum commercial, “Double your pleasure, double your semen stains.”

Secondly, Atlanta shooter Brian Nichols was also black. Wisconsin shooter Terry Ratzmann was white.

more...........

[TWiley]

27. Yes, Thank God no Heathens were injured.

[amazona]

28. even though Church Guy killed twice as many people

Odd, isn't it?

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72