Here are two actual Toronto media headlines...
• "Music brand manager fatally shot on Queen Street West was 'impossible to not like,' family says" •
• "Woman killed in Woodbridge shooting was 'a magnetic burning presence'" •
These headlines contain not a single verifiable fact. They are not even the opinion of a majority of people who knew these two individuals.
It's what a grieving parent would say after being poked and prodded during the worst week of their life. Obviously, in the first example, there was
at least one person who found it possible to dislike this "
music brand manager"... to the point of
shooting him down in the street. That's an undeniable fact... unlike the catchall, nonsensical job description.
What has happened here is that some enterprising "
professional" journalist has managed
to trade on two families unfathomable grief and root out a couple of emotional quotes. I have no idea what a "
magnetic burning presence" is... and if you're being honest,
neither do you.
What this is...
is exploitation. And all of you who mindlessly suck this shit up are part of the problem. This isn't, as newspapers have been trumpeting these last few days, about "
aspiring musical genius" cut down in the flower of youth. In both cases it's about
violent criminal gangs who snuff out human lives as casually as small boys squashing ants.
No one here was randomly targeted, although the woman with Mr Commisso appears to have been, to the shooters, acceptable collateral damage (
which serves only to underline their callous and savage mindset).
As long as people are willing to sup this thin gruel and not ask actual questions and push for real answers, it will happen again and again. You want to live in a Jerry Springer world? It's right there every day in front of you.
Or, you can choose a higher standard.
