Nates Notes

Their bodies were not even cold yet. Their family members’ faces were still soaked with tears. Nobody even truly knew what had happened, before social media users took the murder of reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward and twisted it for their own cause.

For those who are not aware, WDBJ7 employees Parker and Ward were simply out doing their jobs as reporters. Little did they know, this would be the last job they would ever have.

The two were broadcasting a live interview when a disgruntled former employee of WDBJ7 fired as many as 17 shots, killing them both and injuring interviewee Vicki Gardner. The shooter later took his own life, leaving Gardner as the only survivor of this tragedy.

It was not too long until the media grabbed ahold of this. As I perused through Twitter for updates, what I saw completely baffled me. There were the expected Twitter users offering their condolences and prayers for the families of the deceased. That came as no surprise. However, there were seemingly endless tweets about “needed gun reform,” race issues and even the media as a whole.

Heartless and insensitive tweets ranged from “The media is only talking about this because they were white” to “They got what they deserved.”

One man, who claims to be an activist for the “African American community” took to Twitter and predicted that the shooter would be a white man and that the media would do whatever it could to protect his image. When the gunman was confirmed as Vester Flanagan II, a black man, he deleted the completely inaccurate prediction.

Gun reform, a very hot social topic in our nation, was also thrown in the mix. Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe was one of a few politicians who pounced on this tragedy and twisted it into almost a validation that gun reform was needed. Essentially, he — along with any other politician who made this incident about guns — made Parker and Ward the poster children for gun reform, before their bodies were even buried.

While on the other end of the spectrum, those in favor of guns took to their keyboards and defended guns before even offering a single bit of sympathy to those who just lost a loved one, as if keeping their guns was a more pressing matter than the two people losing their lives. And if they were not defending guns, they jumped to conclusions, claiming, “‘Liberals’ will come and use this to take our guns!”

I have no issue with social media when it is used as a positive tool. But I do have an issue when people use it at the most inappropriate of times and in the most inappropriate of ways. Sometimes, it gives some people a voice when they have no need for one. Two innocent people were just murdered, and people on social media are screaming that the government has somehow “failed” the victims.

Down the road, I agree that it may be wise to revisit these tragedies and devise necessary ways to prevent it from happening again. But please, lets mourn the dead before we try to make a point.

Haywood is the editor-in-chief