Crimitism

Alright, Alex, I won't do anything that people might like ever again because it's unfair on you. You've successfully emotionally blackmailed someone out of doing something they cared about because it wasn't entirely for your benefit. You must be so proud.

Zoo Weekly’s response to Virginia Tech

Posted by Richie on April 25, 2007

A top ten school massacre countdown. With cartoon bloodstains and bullet holes. Emphasis on the bloodiness, the macho power-trip wannabe-Rambo element, though obviously they can’t say the latter explicitly. Victims are only of interest as a way of keeping score.

No real point in commenting on this. It is what it is.

And I gave them $2.95 so I could scan it in.

Click to enlarge:

There’s also a “Fun Massacre Quiz”. Something like this… Something like this could potentially have been a satirical comment on the way that the media “others” killers; concentrating on the fact they were goths, or played video games, or weren’t white, or liked to be alone. But this is Zoo, so it isn’t. In fact, it only contributes to the problem, by distancing Zoo‘s readership from the stereotype. Believing “I don’t have any problems a beer and pie can’t fix” and having “Davo” as a nickname are both signs of normality. I got 16.

To end on a more positive note, if tangentially, LonerGrrrl has an excellent post on the denigration of “loners” in the media, prompted by the way the label was applied to Cho Seung-Hui.

12 Responses to “Zoo Weekly’s response to Virginia Tech”

  1. nightgigjo said

    This is probably proof of me buying into all this but: what were the other four situations (specifically, did they mention Jonesboro, Arkansas?)

    But Zoo seems to be overt in their sensationalism (unlike Fox News and other such big media).

    But “Fun Massacre Quiz”? WTF?! That completely and utterly deserves the interrobang.

    Oh, and being American is equivalent to owning a handgun, shotgun, pipe bomb, blogging about firearms or bullies or jocks, wearing a ‘goth trenchcoat’ or having the handle “Fatality666″ (all are +5). Lovely.

  2. Richie said

    Oh, the other four. Yeah, I just noticed I didn’t scan page 3. I’ll get around to that this afternoon.

    EDIT: Fixed

  3. cellycel said

    *shakes head*

    A guy at work was reading it, I notices the little bloodstain in the corner and was disgusted. I showed it to a bunch of other people at work, and only one of them thought there was anything wrong with it.

  4. stormy said

    Mmmm, I scored 27. Mind you, I got a 10 with “I’m seriously considering a killing spree as a hobby”. The fact that my killing spree may take place in the offices of ZOO…
    …ah, perhaps then we can all sit around and have a good laugh about it?

  5. Camryn said

    But where’s the list of top ten hot babe victims? That’s, like, a huge oversight on their part.

  6. Richie said

    Didn’t America’s Next Top Model already do that?

  7. Camryn said

    True! But top ten real life hot babe massacre victims could be a new angle. Maybe we can look forward to a follow-up issue. They could include a poll – vote for your fav hot babe victim.

  8. Richie said

    God, imagine the potential innuendo you could get out of that one.

  9. Purtek said

    Is it wrong to be amused that they can’t do basic math? I zoomed to focus on the one on the Montreal massacre (because it’s familiar and I knew it would provide ample evidence of “wannabe Ramboim” in a few short sentences), and it says that when Lepine first started shooting, he killed 6 women and wounded 3 others, then went on to kill 5 more. The total at the top (which is the correct one) was 14 dead.

    I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think this stupidly offensive sensationalism at its worst, but it helps my sanity to dismiss the writers with the knowledge that they can’t even add.

  10. Richie said

    And the target audience can’t read, so that’s another plus.

  11. [...] Abt. für Medien Jedenfalls bei den Top 10 Bloodiest School Massacres Ever! [...]

  12. [...] Australia’s foremost celebration of hate-fueled idiocy, a magazine that isn’t above celebrating serial killers and eroticising corpses, think he’s a useless [...]

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