Might be therapeutic?

thinking very clearly either. This is a trauma for them too. Approaching people in the middle of a storm in the heart that affects the head is just wrong.

I am horrified at what passes for journalism. Each station has to have more, more, more at a time when the traumatized just need to be in their own private space to grieve, to console. Reporters don't belong there, asking "how does this make you feel?" They are not qualified. It's unbelievable what lengths they go to to "get a story". I don't want to hear that kind of story. Report the facts and move on. Don't train the cameras on the place and the survivors for hour upon hour. This is horrible. Give the kids and their parents some respect.

There is a reason that "Therapy" is private.

What you descried is "public therapy" ... which means that anything a kid says is public and lives as long as they do.

They should all be held accountable for their shameful actions today. The media hasn't exactly been upstanding in recent years, but today's coverage was downright pathetic. Interviewing kids that survived, misidentifying the shooter, indirectly notifying family/friends that their loved ones had died by rushing to break news and divulging significant information (e.g., saying the shooter's name was Lanza and he targeted his mother and the students in her class at the time). It's just all so despicable. I hope there are some firings after today and the media takes a hard look at what it has become.

I'm not a child shrink, but I don't think its a good idea to interview the kids at the scene. Cause let's see - they just watched a bunch of their friends get killed and here comes a bunch of adults who want them to tell their story on national television?

I'm gonna say that's probably not a good idea.

Maybe in a month, or six months. Or a year - or never. They'll have to tell their stories once to the police. That should be enough for all of us.

As you said, they've been thru some unspeakable tragedy, and yet we tell them to stand here, look this way into this camera and in a ten second sound byte, try to tell us everything you're going through or thinking right now. But make it quick because we're about to cut away to a commercial.....

Parents and the news will change their impressions of what happened very fast. Six months from now, they wil not know what actually happened verses what they think happened now that they talked to mom and dad.

saddens me. But yet we are the ones that can't turn away.

eom

They have just been traumatized. They should only relive such a thing with a qualified mental health professional who can help them cope. I don't think it is a good idea to make them keep talking about it over and over again without finding out what state of mind they are in first, and there is no way of knowing that without having them talk to a grief counselor at least. I know if I had a child and my child went through something like this, I would make sure they made at least one visit to a mental health professional and let them know they can express how they feel and work through it that way safely. I would not want for my kid to bottle it up and not be able to express themselves without someone there who knows how to help them. And I certainly would not want them questioned by some of the worst vultures in MSM.

that the first persons they would talk to would be their parents and then a counselor. Not a reporter? How is this rocket science to some of you on this thread?

In my studying for physics final/post on DU idiotic kind of way

What's blowing my mind is that any parent/guardian would even consider letting their child be interviewed directly following such a traumatic event. These kids need hugs, support and love from their family members. Not a bunch of strangers sticking mics in their faces.

Some of the children's comments were on the air within minutes and in the mayhem, while parents and officials were still arriving on the scene, the nooz vultures were probably taking advantage of the confusion.

I'm not saying anything obvious will come of that (like wanting to be famous through shooting) but it can create some deeply conflicted feelings about being special, being responsible, being overwhelmed, and so forth. Children's minds do NOT work the way adult minds work. They need to be protected, assured, allowed to talk at their own level as long as they need to in an atmosphere of safety and with parents who are also being taken care of.

So yes, I think it's a big mistake to ask them questions, as compelling as that might be.

acknowledged that the children shouldn't be interviewed now, but they did say there was a boy who wanted to talk to them, and his interview was broadcast.

... for starting this thread. I'm still hesitant to start a thread myself being a newbie here on DU. So when your thread popped-up knew I had to respond with a post.

I too feel just as you do ... the children at this school do not need to be exploited in this way. EOM

People haven't gotten more stupid. Increasingly, they just get paid more to do the stupid thing than the right thing.