Does fame inspire terrorism in streets?

I sit here, television blaring, watching the news, staring at “RAMPAGE” in boldface letters, and wonder why I’m unsurprised that it’s happened again. Admittedly, I don’t know all the facts regarding the murders in San Bernardino, but we can add these shootings to a lengthening list that includes Sandy Hook, Santa Barbara, Paris and many others.

Why lump terrorist and domestic mass shootings together? It’s because of the amount of media coverage, especially television, that each receives.

I can’t help but wonder if the inordinate amount of television coverage these events receive somehow contributes to more of the same. I imagine ISIS and other terrorists seeing the same images we see. I imagine them thinking, “Look at what we’ve done. Look at the attention we’re receiving. The world will know us.”

I imagine a domestic shooter, in his warped way, thinking, “I’ll get the attention I want. People will know me. They’ll be sorry now.”

Yet, here I sit, along with millions of others, watching every image, craving every detail of another abhorrent event. We’ll shake our heads. We’ll think, “How awful.” We’ll say, “No, not again.” We’ll wait. It’ll happen again. We’ll watch and we’ll listen, absorbing every detail.

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 6:45 AM with the headline "Does fame inspire terrorism in streets?."