by Marshall Gibson

Created on: May 02, 2007

The media lusts for violence. They're bloated leaches sucking the blood off the campus sidewalks. Carnage is the reporting business' forte. Did you see the fire in Geraldo's eyes? Nancy Grace wakes at dawn singing, "It's a beautiful day to be alive, because people have died." They disrupt us by flashing images of the drillfield covered with cops in kevlar wielding assault rifles. It's surreal to see media icons like Katie Couric, Shepherd Smith, and Greta van Susteren standing in front of all-too-familiar buildings: AJ, Cochrane, Torgersen, McBryde, Randolph, and Burruss. It's disgusting to hear the media refer to the campus as a battlefield' or war zone'. I cringe every time I hear the words massacre' and Virginia Tech' in the same sentence. The media had me convinced this is the demise of VPI. I was not only mourning the loss of life, I was mourning the death of my school.

On the flip side, every American should bypass the media filter, visit Blacksburg, and see that old college town with their own eyes. One week after the shooting, the sun shines over campus. Students are walking about and riding their bikes. They're enjoying the spring weather; they're playing Frisbee, volleyball, and tennis. The restaurants and coffee lounges are packed with students. A band is jamming at The Cellar. There is no fear lingering in the air.

The media had me fooled. Life will have to rain far worse bedlam over Appalachia to slow the momentum of Virginia's largest college. This was not a massacre'. This was a fender bender; the dent is easily removed.

My friends and schoolmates make light of the media's onslaught:
"I almost hit Geraldo Rivera with my car."
"If Katie Couric tries to interview me one more time, I'm gonna punch her in the face."
We go to dinner at the Cajun restaurant in town. Bob orders the gumbo. Our waitress responds, "Sorry, we're out of gumbo. The reporters ate all the gumbo." Those jerkoffs!

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