Control of the media after the mosque attacks in New Zealand

THANK YOU to the two new followers from over the past week, bringing the total up to 116.

I hope you like what you read, or at least feel strongly enough to comment. I don’t think people realize there’s something in it for them!

Go back over previous posts and you’ll see the subjects I’ve written about often change or develop, so I update the posts using comments – several times, with more than a dozen updates – depending on the subject matter and source of the new information. (You can never be too sure.)

If you comment on my blog site, you’ll get more on the subject that mattered to you with an emailed update when I post something. Commenting on social media won’t often get you that because there are more posts, making them are harder to find. (Of course, you’re free to comment both here and on social media, but you know how I feel about most social media by how I end each post, how none of us control it, and there’s more to come on that so please keep reading.)

Most of what I’ve been publishing lately has been about work, especially the newspaper stories I’ve written, since that takes up so much of my time. Those are actually considered pages and not posts, so you won’t get an email about them. Still, when you care about your craft, it’s fun looking back on what you’ve learned.

Soon, maybe tomorrow, I plan to publish about the past two issues. Click “PGN, 2019: Copy Editor, Writer, Reporter” to keep up. Writing something every single week has been taking up too much time.

I have to mention yesterday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed a 50th person, who was found at the first of the two mosques, al Noor. Three dozen survivors, ranging from two years old to their 60s, are still in hospitals, 12 in intensive care and two in critical condition. Many needed multiple surgeries.

Also, The Sydney Morning Herald reported police said they think Brenton Tarrant, 28, was the lone gunman. NBC News reported three other people were arrested and considered suspects, but are not anymore. A woman was released, one man faces unrelated firearms charges, and an 18-year-old man’s arrest was “tangentially related,” according to police, but not believed to have been involved with the shooting.

Similar to the attack in late October in Pittsburgh – in which I expressed my shock on the day, and was finally able to look at the bigger picture after a week – the victims were just praying together on their holy day of the week. (Sure, Muslim vs. Jewish, mosques vs. synagogue, and Friday vs. Saturday, but that doesn’t seem so important after what happened.)

Today, the suspected gunman in the two mosque attacks, the Australian-born Tarrant, made his first appearance in court. According to CBS News, with his hands in cuffs, he “flashed what is believed to be a white nationalist hand gesture” as the judge charged him with one count of murder and indicated there will be more charges filed when Tarrant goes in front of the Christchurch high court on April 5. The motives for the shooting rampage are reported to be white nationalism and an anti-immigrant ideology.

More than 200 miles south, authorities searched a home believed to be Tarrant’s family’s, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised new gun control legislation since all five of Tarrant's weapons were purchased legally. Those weapons were rifles covered in white-supremacist graffiti. Online gun owners’ groups referred to “panic buying” ahead of an expected ban on semi-automatic guns.

Tarrant is also suspected of publishing a 74-page white supremacist manifesto on Twitter that was sent to a bulk email address that included Prime Minister Ardern’s own office, minutes before the attacks started.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE: President Trump mentioned in the accused killer’s manifesto.

Plus, bodycam video of Friday’s New Zealand mosque massacres became viral video. Social media companies couldn’t stop it from spreading. I tell them what to do, and it’s not hard.