Please Don’t Shoot the Messenger (Editorial)

By the time you read this, we’ll most likely have an idea why a shooter let loose a deadly barrage in the newsroom of the Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper. At this writing, on Thursday, we have no idea.

The chances are excellent that it was something personal. A disgruntled former employee or an angry ex-husband — the usual kind of workplace shooter, although it is fairly sickening to realize that this kind of thing has become so routine that we all know what is usual.

It might even be someone angry about something the newspaper reported, although that’s a rare motive for murder.

In times past, it would not have crossed our minds that a newsroom massacre might be a political act. But in the Arkansas Business newsroom, a similar workplace where we do similar work, we immediately thought of repeated declarations by the President of the United States — the Commander-in-Chief — that journalists are the enemies of the American people. At first it was just silly and juvenile; now it’s downright scary.

We also thought about a report two days earlier of a delightful text that right-wing hero Milo Yiannopoulos sent to a reporter in London: “I can’t wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.”

This week we mark the 242nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Enjoy the holiday, friends, and maybe give a little more thought than usual to the state of the American experiment. We hope, more than you know, that the mass murder in Annapolis was an old-fashioned horror, not the start of a war on journalists. But it would be really, really helpful if people in positions of influence would behave in ways befitting their positions.

People like your humble servants shouldn’t have to worry about our safety any more than is standard.