Folks are shaking their heads today at a Florida Atlantic University professor who has come off like a complete loon with his theories about the Newtown shooting. It seems James Tracy doesn't think Adam Lanza massacred children and staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School after all. The tenured associate professor of media history says it's all a hoax fabricated by the Obama administration to push through a gun control agenda.
Tempted to laugh? Don't.
Tracy's rantings and allegations against the Obama administration aren't just misguided. They're downright cruel.
Said Tracy:
As documents relating to the Sandy Hook shooting continue to be assessed and interpreted by independent researchers, there is a growing awareness that the media coverage of the massacre of 26 children and adults was intended primarily for public consumption to further larger political ends.
While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place -- at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation's news media have described
Political ends? That's all those kids amount to? A political battle in Tracy's mind?
He's not the first to posit some ridiculous "cause" for Sandy Hook, but it's certainly one of the most disturbing. He's literally saying that it never happened.
Now, imagine for just a moment being the parent of one of the 20 children brutally murdered by Adam Lanza on December 14. You have spent nearly a month in unspeakable pain. You power up your computer, and there is a man telling you that it's all a fairy tale, that your Christmas morning spent without the pitter patter of little feet sneaking past your bedroom door to get a look at what Santa brought was really a hap, hap, happy holiday.
Still want to laugh at James Tracy?
The professor may think he's doing a service to our country by outing some ridiculous conspiracy, but he could have cleared up his concerns about the veracity of what happened at Sandy Hook pretty quickly. Go visit Newtown. Go visit the parents of those 20 children. Look them in the eyes and -- with compassion -- talk to them about their kids.
Maybe if we stopped looking at every thing as political and started focusing on people, we'd actually get somewhere in this country ...
What do you make of James Tracy's rantings? Should he have to face those parents?
Image via armin_vogel/Flickr
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Comments 29
James Tracy should be ignored. He is one of those conspiracy believers. I bet he believes the gvt is hiding aliens and the cure to AIDS and cancer.
so sad.
I've heard several theories that Lanza was a scapegoat and either didn't do it himself, or that he was coerced by the government to do it.
And you know what? Even if the professor IS claiming that it didn't happen at all, he's still entitled to his opinion.
i couldn't agree with @the4mutts anymore. the guy is being misquoted, even though you have a direct quote. how does that work? oh, interpretation. he's not saying that it didn't happen, but rather that it didn't happen the way we think.
i'm not saying he's right, but he's free to have his opinion on how it went down. he wasn't there any more than any of us were, so the only people who really know are the a-hole that did this mess (can we stop using his name already? he doesn't need any further glorification in media). and between arguments of "it was mental illness" vs "he knew what he was doing" vs "where was his dad"... it just keeps going. the speculation, the attention, the call to arms of america to give up their guns because they're evil. no, there was one evil man in this plot, and he deserves no more of my time today.
I agree with sunmoonandstar and 4mutts. You have the quote right there, you copy and pasted it into your article and then misconstrue and misrepresent it. Crazy except it's not the first time i've seen this writer do it.