On April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on a shooting rampage. Together they killed 15 of their classmates and one teacher, injured 24 others and then turned the guns on themselves.
Their mission: to blow up the entire school. Not to satisfy their promise to the devil, awaken the spirits of the dark underground, or fulfill a mission spoken to them through their ringleader, Marilyn Manson, but because they hated the world and intended on having fun annihilating as much of it as they could.
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Yet that wasn’t the story we were told.
Instead, the media frenzy conveyed the tale of two unhinged American teenage misfits. Adorned in their gothic-style coats while emanating their devilish half-dead, half-alive look, their hatred for minorities and jocks dripped down their spines, and they were intent on targeting precisely those few—the evil creatures who had filled their black lungs with aversion.
“The boys may have been part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic Movement and some of these Goths may have killed before,” announced 20/20 anchor Diane Sawyer on the evening after the massacre.
Yet as enticing as this tale was, it was completely false.
In fact, Harris and Klebold had plenty of friends, were not members of this Trench Coat Mafia, did not dress in Goth, listen to Manson or mask themselves in black eyeliner. They were not bullied and harbored no specific grudges against any one group. They wanted to kill everyone. And while they did wear trench coats on the day of the shooting, it was only to hide their arsenal of shotguns, pistols, knives and small carbon dioxide canister bombs.
But the media didn’t care for the facts and would never let them get in the way of such a bloodcurdling story. Instead, it took nothing more than reports of black clothing and eyeliner among the unrelated Trench Coat Mafia to kick start hourly reports of a violent cult of Satan worshippers led by Marilyn Manson.
While journalism was once praised as a noble calling for those who aspired to seek and report the truth, when it came down to the Columbine reports, journalists searched for nothing but a story—and one that would captivate their audience The truth was irrelevant.
Plus the public could not possibly believe that Harris and Klebold didn’t have a clear-cut reason for their actions. They could not accept this as an isolated event of two kids whose detest for the world had ignited them to kill. There had to be some explanation.
And of course, they couldn’t be “normal.” The killers must have been total outcasts with a hunger for blood–gothic loners with an appetite for all things dark. This event needed to have some deeper meaning, and for journalists that just meant choosing a narrative to pursue –and boy, did they pick a salacious one.
But in this attempt to craft a story, the very essence of journalism was obliterated and soon morphed in sensationalism.
In their delivery of a tale of grand proportions, journalists managed to manipulate the public’s fear, whipping up widespread hysteria. The community was soon trembling at the thought of black clothing. Almost overnight, trench coats, Marilyn Manson and the “G” word became synonymous with school shootings.
Parents started lobbying to get trench coats and dark apparel banned, school administrators started targeting those dressed in black, and before long harassment of these students was running rampant with unwarranted backpack searches, detainment in the hallways and frequent visits to the administrative office for questioning.
After all, they were probably in the midst of planning their next attack. It was modern “trench coat” warfare and nobody was safe. If you were sitting in the corner at lunch wearing black and had Manson echoing from your headphones, you probably also had a gun in your bag– and were ready to blow up the school.
With the media constantly groping to attribute meaning to everything, developing an enticing narrative was the easiest solution. Delivering the truth came second to presenting a juicy story – and every seasoned reporter knew better than to allow facts to get in the way.
