The Tragedy in Tucson |

All of us at DCTV are deeply saddened by Saturday's shooting in Tucson, AZ. As a media organization which has been working on gun violence prevention for the past 5 years, we are too familiar with how gun violence affects communities across the country. We would like to extend our sympathies to all those affected by this tragic event, including the 20 victims and their families, and the entire city of Tucson, which is inevitably a changed place now.

The January 8th shooting, and all its subsequent debates, makes us consider the role and responsibility of political rhetoric in the news media. There has been a lot of talk about the whether or not the alleged shooter was influenced by the bitter political climate in Arizona or the incendiary right-wing news media. As someone who had been proven to be mentally unstable, there might be a chance that he was more easily influenced by reactionary, violent rhetoric, but rather than placing blame on specific politicians or pundits, we as a news-producing and consuming nation should take this opportunity to evaluate our news sources and what we expect from them.

We are fortunate to live in a democratic society where our freedom of speech is protected (as is our right to purchase semi-automatic weapons and carry them to public events concealed, apparently). What do these rights mean to such an enormous, disparate and divided nation? How do we preserve our right to free speech while maintaining non-partisan, civilized discourse in our news media? And how do we educate the public to discern the difference between reporting and entertainment, with so many legitimate news outlets conflating the two, creating "news" programs that are as concerned about their ratings as "Dancing With the Stars"?

There has been a barrage of media coverage of the shooting, and we'd like to recommend the following pieces, which have helped us consider this tragedy and all its implications. Yes, these are major news outlets (with some entertainment thrown in), but these journalists (and Jon Stewart) make some very important points and do so in fair, responsible ways.

Matt Bai for The New York Times

Jon Stewart for The Daily Show

Paul Krugman for The New York Times

Rachel Maddow for MSNBC

It's deeply unfortunate that it takes a tragedy of this scale to bring the issue of gun violence into the minds and hearts of people across the country, but now is the time to pay extra attention to how the news is covering this situation and to seek out fair, balanced and informed news sources.