Within minutes of the news breaking that Jared Lee Loughner had killed
six and wounded 12 in a rampage outside a Tucson safeway store,
including a critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the news media
immediately leapt to the conclusion that the harsh tone of our political
discourse - led by conservative talk radio - surely must be to blame.
That narrative turned out to be hogwash, but another one has emerged
during the investigation into Loughner's psyche, yet virtually no one
wants to discuss it. Was the shooter inspired by the entertainment
media?
Why would violent movies or music be left out of the rush to judgment?
Perhaps it's because pop-culture defenders never tire of arguing that no
one can blame the "artists" - be they musicians, movie-makers or
video-game manufacturers - for youth violence. So it becomes awkward, to
say the least, that everyone's discussing the need to curb a national
appetite for angry rhetoric, when it was disturbing music and movies
that were influencing Loughner's mind, and they are ignored.
It
took 72 hours for Loughner's entertainment appetites to enter the media
mainstream. On January 11, The Washington Post noted that on the
shooter's YouTube channel, a lone video is listed as a favorite. J.
Freedom du Lac reported on the rock band Drowning Pool: "As a hooded
figure wearing a garbage bag for pants limps across the desert to set
fire to an American flag, a howling heavy-metal song called 'Bodies'
serves as the video's relentless soundtrack."
The lyrics are screamed: "Let the bodies hit the floor! Let the bodies
hit the floor! Let the bodies hit the floor!" in an obvious echo of a
shooting rampage like Loughner's. This isn't the first time this music
was associated with a murder. In the northern Virginia suburb of Oakton
in 2003, du Lac added, "then-19-year-old Joshua Cooke cranked throbbing
tune on his headphones, walked out of his bedroom holding a 12-gauge
shotgun and killed his parents."
I think we can agree that this is a more provocative ode to violence
than Sarah Palin's map with targets on a piece of congressional
geography. Even the name of the band implies death.
In a statement posted on January 10, the band said they were
"devastated" by the news from Tucson "and that our music has been
misinterpreted, again." They claimed the song was written about "the
brotherhood of the mosh pit and the respect people have for each other
in the pit. If you push others down, you have to pick them back up. It
was never about violence. It's about a certain amount of respect and a
code."
The words "mosh pit" are nowhere in the lyrics. But this line is: "Push me again / This is the end."
The closest reference to being in a rock-concert crowd is this: "Skin
against skin, blood and bone / You're all by yourself, but you're not
alone / You wanted in, now you're here / Driven by hate, consumed by
fear." But these words depict "a certain amount of respect and a code"?
The wire services added that Loughner liked government-conspiracy
documentaries like the 9/11-truther films "Loose Change," and
"Zeitgeist," and bizarre cult films like "Donnie Darko," a 2001 movie
summarized as "A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large
bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes."
As he's told the world will end in 28 days, Donnie Darko (played by
actor Jake Gyllenhaal) floods the school, steals his father's gun, and
burns the home of a motivational speaker, where firemen uncover a
"kiddie porn dungeon." The film ends with Donnie laughing in bed as a
falling jet engine crashes into his bedroom.
No network news anchor was blaming Richard Kelly, the cult film's
writer and director, for filling Jared Loughner's disturbed mind with
more apocalyptic visions. That would be unfair. That would be oppressing
an artist with a "chilling effect." But blaming a Palin map with
targets on congressional districts (or TV and radio talk shows that
Loughner never watched or heard) isn't just fair game. It's an urgent
national priority.
I don't know if Loughner is deranged or the epitome of evil. If you
want to look at the dark influences, however, be honest and report the
evidence as it exists. Fox News had nothing to do with this. Nor did
Rush, Beck, Palin, or any other conservative. Angry heavy-metal bands
and cult-movie directors shouldn't be charged with crimes, either. But
to what extent did their "entertainment" poison this man's mind? Let the
discussion go there.
