[vaxdigitalnh]

"Public policy should not be dictated by emotions."

But the media knows that a large share of their "news business" is driven by emotion. And so here we are all thinking about mass shootings.

And we know the media has an enormous influence on politics. So add this all up and what do we have?

A terrible tragedy that affects a small community but also a lot of tangential effects, remote onlookers, politicians and an enterprising "media business".

I have a cousin who as a child was a student in a narrowly averted early grade school classroom mass shooting. Honestly, when I first heard about this incident in Connecticut I thought of him. I can only wonder what he thought about when he read about this incident. When it hits close to home, there might be hesistation to even talk about these things, they are so horrible. We might block them out. We might tell the children to close their eyes. We might try to pretend it never happened.

But for the media and the "news business", it's a different ballgame.