That Kim de Gelder attacked all these kids is bad enough!
Why does the media suddenly come up with these kind of stories? All media have stories like the one below. But it isn't true! The news in Belgium said the man had his eyes black but this had nothiing to do with the joker and it is only guessing. However, all media seem to inflate this into being something that could be related to the Batman movie. Then other media started saying it was related to GTA4.
The guy was an insane loner. The media have reported that he was wearing make-up at the time of the attack, that made him look like the Joker character from the Batman films, but police say that is not confirmed. Only thing they found was eyeliner in his backpack.
| http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/benelux/090125/belgian-killer-painted-his-face-the-joker wrote: |
As Belgians gathered in the thousands to mourn the victims of Friday's frenzied knife attack on children and staff at a small-town day care center, the nation strugged to comprehend the motives of the young killer. He reportedly painted his face like the Joker from "Batman" before the bloodbath that took the lives of two babies and one of their caretakers.
Front pages across the kingdom were dominated this weekend by a smiling portrait of Kim De Gelder, the chief suspect who was arrested shortly after Friday's assault on the Fairy Tale Land day care center in Dendermonde. Police say De Gelder has refused to talk since his detention, adding to the mystery surrounding the unremarkable 20-year-old who had recently quit his job in a garden supply store.
The killer who walked into the day care center on Friday morning had smeared his face with white makeup and drawn black circles around the eyes. Local media have said the young assailant also had long red hair, creating a striking resemblance to the Joker as played by the late Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight."
The attack came a year after the announcement of Ledger's death in New York from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs and a day after the Australian actor was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the deranged killer who seeks to provoke chaos through a series of shocking crimes.
Belgian media also have pointed out that De Gelder's last name is an anagram of Ledger, suggesting the suspect may have developed an obsession with the actor. Some reports said De Gelder laughed at police interrogators in an echo of scenes from the movie.
Although the authorities have not confirmed any link to the movie, Belgian authorities are facing questions about the influence of violent movies, television and computer games on young people.
"There are kids who spend the whole night in front of computer screens where they are killing people all the time," childcare specialist Maryse Tonon told the RTBF television network Sunday. "We have to ask if they are starting to confuse the virtual world with the real world."
Horror struck Dendermonde at 10 a.m. on Friday. Prosecutors say a young man entered the building, walked into the room holding the youngest children and began stabbing at the babies and their caretakers with a large kitchen knife. After about 15 minutes, the killer walked out and calmly rode away on a bicycle. Police and paramedics arrived to find a scene of carnage.
Among screaming children and dazed adults were the bodies of six-month old Leon Garcia-Mannaert, nine-month-old Korneel Vermeir and 54-year old Marita Blindeman, who was stabbed as she struggled to defend the babies. Two other adults and 10 children were seriously injured. Although none remain in critical condition, doctors say some youngers will need plastic surgery to hide their scars.
Dendermonde's chief prosecutor Christian Du Four said De Gelder was armed with two knifes, an axe and a fake pistol when he was arrested a few miles from the scene. He was wearing a bullet proof vest. Two other knifes were found at the scene. De Gelder, who has been charged with three counts of murder, has no previous police record, no record of psychological problems and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Although this seemingly random attack has profoundly shocked the nation of 10 million, is not the only killing to have rocked Belgium in recent years.
Last month, Genevieve Lhermitte was given a life sentence for cutting the throats of her five children aged between 2 and 14; 18-year-old Hans Van Themsche killed a two-year-old girl and her African nanny during a racially motivated shooting spree in the city of Antwerp in 2006; and the country is still haunted by the crimes of pedophile Marc Dutroux who kidnapped, abused and murdered four girls between the ages of 8 and 19 in the 1990s. Public outcry over mismanagement of the Dutroux investigation led to high-level resignations and a major overhaul of the police.
More than 6,000 people marched through Dendermonde in silent tribute to victims on Sunday, adding to the pile of flowers and toys left outside the kindergarten. Many compared the attack to mass killings at schools and colleges in the United States and expressed disbelief that such a thing could happen in their town.
Callers to TV discussion shows demanded the restoration of the death penalty, which was last carried out in Belgium in 1950. The idea was immediately rejected by the government. "That is not something for our times," said Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck. "It's not by killing somebody that we solve society's problems, just look at the United States." |
| joomla wrote: |
That Kim de Gelder attacked all these kids is bad enough!
Why does the media suddenly come up with these kind of stories? All media have stories like the one below. But it isn't true! The news in Belgium said the man had his eyes black but this had nothiing to do with the joker and it is only guessing. However, all media seem to inflate this into being something that could be related to the Batman movie. Then other media started saying it was related to GTA4.
The guy was an insane loner. The media have reported that he was wearing make-up at the time of the attack, that made him look like the Joker character from the Batman films, but police say that is not confirmed. Only thing they found was eyeliner in his backpack. |
I've been mulling this over too Joomla. Looks as though the media thrives on sensation. We've seen it with the Israeli-Palestinian War, with all the scandals in the States and everywhere in the world. Makes me think of what a great Investment Guru had said, Warren Buffett, that if you want to get a little closer to the truth you should read backwards, i.e. instead of the daily press, read a monthly magazine and one you can trust. Daily news is full of inaccuracies.Sensationalism sells. It'll make more flashier headlines to entice you to buy a newspaper, it'll attract you to a news website with ads on it, and it'll get you to wait through the commercials when watching news on TV.
Its all about the money. The news companies that exaggerate for a bigger story make more money. And money is all they care about. Journalistic integrity is just another lie they feed us in order to keep us from rejecting their news... it doesn't really exist.
ocalhoun just explained perfectly.
Newspapers would care less about the truthfulness of their stories... they only care about the money. ($$$$$$$)
I don't think the newspapers will need a "federal bailout" any time soon...
| ocalhoun wrote: |
| Its all about the money. The news companies that exaggerate for a bigger story make more money. And money is all they care about. Journalistic integrity is just another lie they feed us in order to keep us from rejecting their news... it doesn't really exist. |
Well said for me too. This is absolutely true. Even those journalists who believe they have integrity and truth in mind, can blurr the truth with their own egos in having an appearance of truthfulness. I am completely cynical when I read the news or listen to news reports. Going even to a deeper level, I believe the journalists are fed news from sources that are highly qualified to put their messages to people in the street. What we get in the end is what they think we need to know, in order to reach a certain objective, and not necessarily the real truth. I simply hate being a subject of manipulation, but possibly I open myself to it the moment I read or listen to any news. | Nick2008 wrote: |
I don't think the newspapers will need a "federal bailout" any time soon... |
Well, actually, with the internet and TV, newspapers aren't doing very well these days. Thier market has basically shrunk to those who want a newspaper for the sake of having the newspaper, anybody who wants it for the sake of the news in it can get it faster, easier, cheaper, and more entertaining by turning on the TV or computer.Yes, but still most "newspapers" don't just rely on their paper. Most of them have websites too. So the ads on the website earns them money.
Overall the news industry won't need a "federal bailout" anytime soon.
Yes, its a sad state of affairs. And the media certainly focuses on the negative.
But they do it because that is what people want. If you could sell newspapers and web add space with positive news then people would do it. The fact is people are fascinated by bad news. I guess we are wired that way so we can avoid it happening to us.
cheers,
david
| davidfromoz wrote: |
But they do it because that is what people want. If you could sell newspapers and web add space with positive news then people would do it. The fact is people are fascinated by bad news. I guess we are wired that way so we can avoid it happening to us.
cheers,
david |
I am fascinated by this too. Just look at all the movies we are getting from Hollywood. People are happy to receive the bloodthirstiest ones they can get. Vampire movies, brutal and scary movies, that do not say much about the human psyche at all. Perhaps this is one way of relating to our dark sides that have to be depressed when we try to lead good lives, and maybe this is one way of expressing it? 
As deanhills said, the paper and other media sources are used to let people and infact force people think in the way, they want them to think, similarly, scary and violent stuff has also become famous as it is fed into the genes of people slowly and progressively. A child that does not understand the worlds is made to fantisize such stuff from very young age when looks at the horroractions on TV screen and thus, the inclination starts from the very beginning.
Otherwise, though provoking, research oriented and educational stuff can be made as interesting for people (may be more) as these senseless, baseless titles with only screems and bloodshed.
happy that we can do a little bit of our own research and we don't have to swallow the mediacircus
| joomla wrote: |
That Kim de Gelder attacked all these kids is bad enough!
Why does the media suddenly come up with these kind of stories? All media have stories like the one below. But it isn't true! The news in Belgium said the man had his eyes black but this had nothiing to do with the joker and it is only guessing. However, all media seem to inflate this into being something that could be related to the Batman movie. Then other media started saying it was related to GTA4.
The guy was an insane loner. The media have reported that he was wearing make-up at the time of the attack, that made him look like the Joker character from the Batman films, but police say that is not confirmed. Only thing they found was eyeliner in his backpack. |
You are right, this totally boggles the mind. There is this impression too that Europe is watching a lot of TV and movies from the US. Maybe it is much less than what people may think. I have been staying at different Hotels in the UK for example, and granted, they were more in the budget zone, but mostly 10 available channels, but very little from the US. Europe has its own unique rottenness to deal with. You can see it when you are in the streets. A couple of years ago when I was in Zurich, during a weekday, and at 5:30 p.m., youths were going crazy with drugs and throwing bottles at a bus shelter. The bus shelter was in a very good part of town. The violence from it was overwhelming. And unique to a problem in Europe, nothing to do with the US. Closest you can say is that they are in parallel. Maybe to do with boredom, as what really got me too, is that almost all of the shops in Zurich are closed at 5:00 p.m. Not much for the youth to do.
