SadHardly a week goes by where we do not see the face of a hitherto anonymous person achieving instant fame and misfortune by killing someone or committing some other certainly punishable act.

We suspect a deep need on the part of many of these desperate people, living under the weight of their own underachievement, to break free and make a statement about their own existence – knowing that a particularly heinous crime is the royal road to the ego distinction they seek, even if it costs them their lives.

We believe the media unwittingly act as accomplices in the desperate drive for distinction of these offenders by the routine way photographs of the criminals and reports of the details of their lives are immediately spread around the world, as if they were suddenly among the most important citizens of the world.

We suggest that the media immediately cease from this practice and refuse to publish the photographs of people who commit horrible crimes. The acts can and should be reported in simple notices, such as those that appear on any police blotter.

This revision will remove much of the incentive to fame and misfortune from these potential loose cannons.

Two results can be expected. First, far fewer of these miscreants will risk their lives in an attempt to seek what little satisfaction they can expect in terms of instant acknowledgement, and a great many who were contemplating heinous crimes will decide to commit minor infractions instead, because those guilty of minor infractions should still be able to have their photos appear in local media.

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