[davidm]

In this case, it appears that the news media is simply reporting what federal law enforcement officials told reporters: that the killer modeled himself after the Joker. Reporting on facts as best can be ascertained at the moment, from sources ostensibly in the know, is a proper and unavoidable function of the news media.

Draping it all in lurid sensationalism, as both New York tabs will do on Saturday morning, to take one example, is an entirely different matter. But then, of course, if we suspect that such luridness might influence other manchildren to act out murderously to get the attention that they crave, then we are saying straightforwardly that the media does influence people, and so it is not unreasonable to suppose that this person did what he did because he was influenced by a fictional portrayal of the Joker.