The News Media Business & Public Violence Outbursts

In the last 24 hours, both the United States and Japan were horrified by three acts of public violence. Yet like watching an accident, millions were attracted to watching the news reports of these terrible incidents.

In the Texas army base incident, it appears that a combination of depression as well as political radicalism was at fault. While the gunman appears to be a psychiatrist who had recently praised suicide bombers on an Internet posting, it is not yet known if he was on some sort of drugs as of yet. Often the use of antidepressants is associated with bizarre acts of violence or suicide. These drugs are very controversial because almost all of the studies about their effectiveness or safety have only been research done by the drug companies themselves and not by independent testing. Further, most studies that indicate that antidepressants don't work or help to create suicide or violence have been suppressed by the big drug companies because such studies hurt the sales of their drugs. So little is actually known about the claimed antidepressants that for the most part the drug companies cannot they you how they work or if they even work at all. In many cases, antidepressants actually can create suicidal or violent feelings in persons with only mildly depressive symptoms. The psychiatrist involved in the army base shooting has no doubt prescribed thousand of antidepressant pills to patients and may have even used these highly questionable drugs himself.

The important issue of whether the gunman induced his own psychotic feelings by using antidepressants is an important issue here and needs to be explored by the news-media. As a doctor, he had easy access to these drugs.

CNN has found a video tape from 7-Eleven security shot only a few hours earlier of Hasan buying coffee and some food. The public appetite for news breaks of this type should be strong for the next few days. Much of the early reporting on the morning news shows such as TODAY and GOOD MORNING AMERICA was centered on this shooting incident. This story should have a news-cycle of a few days before a new story replaces it.

In Orlando, on Friday morning an office place shooting took place, apparently by a disgruntled worker or some dispute. And in Japan a gunman opened fire as well. These both created new stories for the media to cover. This is new product. News is a commodity product just like eggs or any product. Yet for the public, the news may be tragic.

No doubt newspapers as well as TV and cable news will see a sharp upswing the next few days as the attention in the U.S. and Japan is on these latest acts of violence. For the media, such bad news is good business.