Another shooting, this time in
Annapolis, Maryland:
A gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday afternoon, killing five people, authorities said.
Journalists dived under their desks and pleaded for help on social media. One reporter described the scene as a “war zone.” A photographer said he jumped over a dead colleague and fled for his life.
The guy who did it? A nut with a grudge against the paper:
Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings. He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper.
Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records. He did not have an attorney listed; a bail review hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in Annapolis.
What was the issue?
Ramos’ dispute with the Capital Gazette began in July 2011 when a columnist wrote about a criminal harassment case against him. He brought a defamation suit against the columnist and the organization’s editor and publisher. A court ruled in the Capital Gazette’s favor, and an appeals court upheld the ruling.
Neither the columnist, Eric Hartley, nor the editor and publisher, Thomas Marquardt, are still employed by the Capital Gazette. They were not present during the shootings.
The article in question was called "Jarrod Wants to Be Your Friend" and
Slate has an excerpt:
“’I just thought I was being friendly,’ [the woman] said… That sparked months of emails in which Ramos alternately asked for help, called her vulgar names and told her to kill herself. He emailed her company and tried to get her fired.
But when it seemed to me that it was turning into something that gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, that he seems to think there’s some sort of relationship here that does not exist … “I tried to slowly back away from it, and he just started getting angry and vulgar to the point I had to tell him to stop,” she told the judge.
“And he was not OK with that. He would send me things and basically tell me, ‘You’re going to need restraining order now.’ ‘You can’t make me stop. I know all these things about you.’ “I’m going to tell everyone about your life.” “An email in April 2010 said, ‘Have another drink and go hang yourself, you cowardly little lush. Don’t contact you again? I don’t give a (expletive). (Expletive) you.
Not the sort of friend anyone would want. In other words, this guy was operating in his own world, independent of anything otherwise happening around him. There won't be any place for the usual ghouls who enjoy using mass murder to push their agendas on this story. Then again, who knows?
4 comments:
I was watching the story unfold with great curiosity yesterday - not just for the details about what happened, but how quickly the narrative was being shaped. The St. Paul paper in early afternoon had a headline about "growing hostility to the media", with nothing in the story that had anything to do with the headline. Later they shored that up, with someone talking about right-wingers attacking the media for fake news when reporters were just hard-working, underpaid people simply doing their jobs. Mind you, at this time of the day they still didn't have a name for the shooter or access to his social media trail. But by all means, let's blunt the idea that the Left is the group eager to intimidate and do violence.
In other news, I see that Maxine Waters has canceled two public appearances out of fear of receiving the same treatment she was advocating earlier in the week.
And in further news, petards are selling 3 for a dollar; block and tackle is extra.
i knew the shooter wasnt a right winger because if he was, his name would have published before the first body hit the ground... as time wore on, i knew even more so it was likely a Bernie type... i was right again.
In the AP article the Strib ran today, Brian Witte wrote: At the White House, President Donald Trump, who routinely calls reporters "liars" and "enemies of the people," said: "Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs."
Here's the deal, though: Trump calls reporters liars and enemies of the people. Demonstrably true. Also demonstrably true (and I have links), is that the media is regularly calling Trump a liar and an enemy of the people, and promoting others who say the same.
Aren't both sides to blame, then, when violence erupts? Is either side entitled to making claims without accountability for what may happen?
The media complains that Trump is not "presidential". By the same token, Trump can say the media is not "objective". Both of these virtues and standards are bleeding out in the gutter. Who shot them, and why?
Apparently Trump hasn't called the media the enemy of the people. He called the Fake News Media the enemy of the people. It might seem a distinction without a difference, but not really. There are plenty of decent journalists who report things. But they don't tend to have high profile jobs at Lefty bastions. They are a disgrace. They don't deserve to be murdered, but they DO deserve unemployment.
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