Post-Virginia Tech murders.

As expected, the cable news channels are covering the tragic murders of students and professors at Virginia Tech Monday on a 24-hour basis.

And it's likely that the cycle of blaming entertainment product for triggering a disturbed person's uncontrollable fury will begin again.  My guess is that movie advertising won't be in the crosshairs of pressure groups, as it was after Columbine.  Instead, the video gaming industry will take a moderate hit--and perhaps some violent games will be pulled from the marketplace.

On Keith Olbermann's COUNTDOWN, this subject was mentioned: the publicly emotional reaction to mass murders by lone gunmen vs. the relative lack of reaction to military and civilian deaths in Iraq.

My theory: Random deaths are still considered far more horrifying by the American public than deaths during wartime--the latter doesn't provoke much comment due to both the absence of visuals of deaths (and flag-draped caskets) in the media and the acceptance of soldiers' deaths occurring from doing their duty in war, regardless of the degree of support for the war at home.