For years academics and public health officials have begged the media to rethink how it covers mass shootings.
A detail we should never forget, among the deluge of coverage in the aftermath of the atrocity in Bondi, comes from an interview with a colleague of one of the alleged gunmen. The co-worker claims that, as he left work one day, the alleged shooter told a workmate he “wanted to be remembered”.
For at least a decade, academics and public health officials have begged the media to not name perpetrators of mass shootings, to avoid using their image if possible, to avoid images of the shooter with “weapons or dressed in military-style clothing”, and to avoid speculating about motive.