Dilettante Journalism About Adam Lanza By PBS

Raising Adam Lanza

Just (11/27/2013) watched online a PBS Frontline report by this title aired on 2/19/2013 about the shooter of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting of 12/14/2013. This report was basically about two reporters from the Hartford Courant newspaper.

Unfortunately, we learn little about this young man. The reporting was done in an amateurish, superficial, and dilettante way.

What Did We Not Learn About This Young Man

This Frontline report failed in so many ways:

1. Was AL seeing a psychologist or other mental health professional?
2. AL was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and Asperger's disease. No further details provided. Who diagnosed? How severe?
3. No interview with father of AL. Frontline may have tried.
4. No interview with the brother of AL. No reason given.
5. No interviews with any other family members of father or mother. No reasons given.
6. No interviews with mental health professionals or experts on such crimes
7. No interviews with peers of AL
8. No investigation in the after school activities of AL
9. Only one teacher interviewed
10. Only one friend of mother interviewed
11. No parallels or contrasts to other, similar shootings developed
12. And we could go on and on ...

The Mother And First Victim

Frontline looked at her only as she was perhaps ignorant or in denial of the severity of her son’s mental condition. Or was she just overwhelmed as a divorced, single mother?

The mother was reported (not by Frontline) as unemployed living off financial support from her divorced husband. Frontline basically only reported that she had a gun collection and took her sons to a gun range for shooting practice.

I believe, it does not happen that often that the mentally ill shooter kills his parents as well. This kind of parenticide by itself is, I believe, a very serious sign of something gone wrong. Frontline completely failed to recognize this.

It appears quite obvious to me that the mother likely was mentally ill herself. So was possibly one of her parents or possibly other family members. Unfortunately, Frontline did not investigate this angle at all.

Jared Lee Loughner

A surviving, mentally ill shooter who severely injured U.S. Representative Gifford and killed several people in 2011.

How much research if any is being done on him?

Gun Control Absurdity And Denial

In part II of the above Frontline report, PBS exposes the viewer to gun control nonsense. Clearly, the Sandy Hook massacre had basically nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment.

Those, who advocate more gun control in the wake of such a shootings obviously committed by a mentally ill person are in pathological denial of the facts.

Mentally illness is still a taboo subject and a stigma in this society. There are no races for the cure in this country in every town like for breast cancer.

Price Of Freedom

Do we simply have to live with the fact that every so often a mentally ill person would take a gun and go somewhere to kill people?

Or is it not high time to offer more help for mentally ill people in this great country!

Previous, Related Blog Posts

See here, here, and here.