PreJournalism

In the 2002 movie "The Minority Report" we find a future earth in which crime has been eradicated from society. Three precognitives (precogs) in the police department of "PreCrime" report imminent crimes before they occur. This proactive crime reporting enables the police to swoop in and haul away the perpetrator before he has a chance to do any harm, and in some cases before he even considers committing a crime. When one of the three precogs disagrees with the other two a "Minority Report" is issued and subsequently ignored by the authorities who make their decision based on the majority opinion of the other two precogs.

Apparently the main stream US media has employed a team of precogs that enable them to report on events that have not yet occurred.  At least this is as plausible an explanation as any other for the media coverage that we have seen regarding the tragic event that occurred in Tucson last Saturday. The department of PreJournalism had a story written and ready to go in anticipation of an event that had not yet occurred. It's understandable that they would make the mistake of leaping forth with their official PreJournalism reports. In their rush to be first out with the story they ran with the one they had written, instead of the one that had occurred.

When Dewey beat Truman, the PreJournalists had an expectation that Truman would actually lose.  They even had polling data to support it. The occasional premature reports of someone passing away may be inaccurate, but the reporter still knows that the event is inevitable. There is no question in the journalists mind that it will happen. They don't even need the aid of precognition. Being proactive about writing a story about who will win the Presidency, or someone passing away is pretty low risk. When a celebrity's health degrades to a certain point, it isn't uncommon for a journalist to have a story ready to go at a moments notice, just in case. Neither is it uncommon to have articles declaring victory for each candidate in a political race ready to go as soon as the results are in. But you wouldn't write an article declaring victory for someone that wasn't in the race, and you wouldn't write an obituary article for someone in the bloom of health. When the news doesn't match reality, it tells us a lot about the writer's perception of reality.

The perception of  the main stream media and left wing pundits in the United States is that right wing activists and Tea party folks are capable of ruthlessly gunning down a popular, moderate democrat congresswoman in cold blood. They believe that it is as inevitable as someone winning the next election or an aged celebrity passing away. Their expectations that something like this will happen are high enough that it was the first thing that came to mind when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot at a political event by a deranged gunman last weekend. Their expectations that something like this will happen are high enough that media outlets across the industry have the story prepped and ready to go. Their expectations that something like this will happen are high enough that they will report that story for events that don't even come close to fitting it.

A discussion should be taking place in the United States today about the dangers of ignoring people with  severe mental disorders in our society. We should be talking about what to do when we encounter people that are clearly a menace to society or a danger to themselves. We should be talking about signs to look for in our loved ones so we can help them or get them the help they need. We should even be talking about the litigious reasons for shutting down mental facilities across America back in the 1970s and the impact it has had on our society. But the PreJournalists majority report has left us with nothing more than a hypothetical discussion about an event that didn't occur. The minority report warns us about the dangers of ignoring the psychotics that live among us. And just like in that movie, the minority report is being discarded and ignored.