User talk:Garyjpetersen59

The Waco tragedy and the media
The media contributions of the press can lead to strange and tragic results. I have recently become fascinated with the disaster of the Waco Compound by the A.T.F./F.B.I. in the early 1990s. I never really knew anything about this, just kind of hearsay, and had never really heard it mentioned when I was old enough to research things. So I did some reading, some digging and found a fascinating story of tragedy. I will spare you the rant on conspiracy theory, and just look at one aspect, the media, specifically the television news/print news role in this horrible disaster. In reading The Ashes of Waco: An investigation by Dick J. Reavis, I learned that part of the Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms who led the original raid on Branch Dividian compound, had a public relations specialist inform the local press, the night before the raid. This is a fact, that the news sources were given what should be distributed to the public. Is that suspicious or what? Considering the horrible tragedy that happened, why was the public relations aspect of the raid wrapped up in a pre-packaged story? One aspect that is truly powerful is the media circus that happens whenever a tragedy happens. Princess Diana's death was a televised, photographed event. Consider what would happen if the entire story was delivered before it happened? What if the facts concluded by one source, to be distributed to the people by a supposed free press? That is a real scary fact, that the institutions that are in place to protect and oversee the people, can control something so closely.Garyjpetersen59 (talk) 20:32, 24 October 2010 (UTC)