Dave Cullen on the lessons learned from Columbine
I posted a New York Times Retro Report on the misperceptions of the Columbine High School massacre a few months back, but last night I spent the better part of an hour and a half listening to Dave Cullen, the author of the book Columbine, describe his research into Columbine at Elmhurst College . In short, the media got it wrong, then widely reported the inaccurate information just to make a better narrative at the time, and the general public left with an overall incorrect storyline of the actual reasons why Columbine occurred.
I'm in search of a new book for September and I'm seriously thinking about reading through Columbine. I'm less interested in the facts of the case and more about how the media can so easily skew public perception about a story and have those last for decades to come. The only thing holding me back is the subject I guess. I'm not sure I want to spend so much time reading about such a sad event.
Another case similar to this comes to mind: The McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.
Our collective narrative of Columbine may be entirely wrong
I just watched this New York Times Retro Report about the events of April, 20, 1999, known at least in the US as the mass shooting at Columbine High School. There's an interesting overall narrative here that basically says that what we know about Columbine -- from the news media mostly -- is probably wrong. This is not just supported by people like Dave Cullen who wrote a book on the real story behind Columbine (I want to read this book), but also by some of the people who were directly affected by the Columbine shooting. Were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold really part of a "trenchcoat mafia" and were they really outcasts in their highschool? When examined closely, most of the facts seem to contradict what we know collectively as a mass shooting perpetrated by two outcasts who were bullied in school. And yet, mass media still uses this case as a comparative scenario whenever an unfortunate school shooting occurs.
The book below sounds incredibly interesting and I might just make it my next book for March (I'm currently reading Wool).