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Editorial: Let's forget Las Vegas killer's name

You will not find the name of the Las Vegas shooter in this editorial.

In fact, unless we somehow slipped up, you're unlikely to find it anywhere in today's newspaper.

And, with only rare exceptions for compelling reasons, not in our subsequent coverage in the days, weeks, months and years ahead either.

(To be clear, this may be easier to monitor in print than on dailyherald.com since some news service coverage is posted automatically on the website, but even if that leads to an occasional lapse, we make every effort to carry out the spirit of our philosophy on all platforms.)

We have no interest in helping to make him famous, no interest in helping to make his name a trending topic online.

This has been our practice in horrific cases like this for years. To a degree, it may be like spitting into the wind. Unless other media from around the country join in the same practice, the gunman may in death gain notoriety anyway. But if that's the case, it will not be our doing, and it will happen without our participation.

Meanwhile, we see progress. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has now taken up the same practice. Good for him. May other media decision-makers follow the same course.

Our philosophy has little if anything to do with the anger we feel about the atrocities the Las Vegas shooter committed, although to be sure, we like most of you are angry.

Nor is it a signal that we lack sympathy for the mental health issues that likely were involved and that need more generally to be addressed in our society. But the kind of troubled mind that would consider such an atrocity is the kind of troubled mind that also would fantasize about the attention. We want to contribute in no way to such fantasies. We want to contribute in no way to more atrocities.

We want no copycats.

We want other troubled minds to seek help rather than glorification.

We have a responsibility as a news organization to exercise restraint in how we cover these tragic stories and how we present them. Every news organization has a responsibility to exercise that restraint.

We urge them to do so.

Our coverage also has an obligation to help shine light on the causes of these mass slayings. That's necessary so society has a better understanding of ways to combat them. But that exploration can we done without naming the killers, without turning them into celebrities, without pouring out personal details that are unrelated to motive.

And in can be done without personal photos. That's one more thing you won't see in the newspaper: a photo of the killer.

We published a small and low-key photo with the first-day coverage. That's the last photo of him we'll ever publish.

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