MEDIA SUICIDE

Four month old kitten, Mercy, was found by police in the apartment of Gary Lee Bassett.  After responding to a call made by a neighbor of Bassett, the police took the kitten to Missoula Animal Control center.  Attendant Barb Parker said “Her spine was just smashed,” to reporters Tristan Scott and Keila Szpaller.
    Along with a broken spine, Mercy’s pelvis was smashed. Her left eye was filling up with blood.  Half of the kitten’s head was shaved, and it is suspected that the owner tried drowning and disposing of the kitten using his toilet.
    Missoulian photographer Michael Gallacher’s image of Mercy, wrapped up in a pink towel, brought the intensity of the brutalization to the eyes of the community.  
    In wake of the article, public rage ensued.  President and founder of AniMeals, Karyn Moltzen, was quoted as saying: “Hang him.  Hurt Him.”  Cash offers to harm the suspect could be found on Craig’s List, and death threats were reported.
    Many members of the public called for the arrest of the single suspect of the case.  There was a great deal of people making donation to try and help the abused Mercy.  Others tried to adopt her.
    Mercy the kitten was euthanized at Washington State University. It was determined that the injuries to her spine were too severe: irreparable.
    Thursday, February 4, Missoula Police Department SWAT team members were called to a scene at the apartment of Gary Lee Bassett. 
    Local authorities had gone to the 38th Street apartment to serve a warrant for aggravated animal cruelty.  A shot was fired within the apartment, requiring the neighborhoods around Dore Lane, Roy Drive and 38th Street to be sealed off.
    The body of Gary Lee Bassett was found in the apartment, dead, due to a single, self inflicted gun shot wound to the head.
    Could all the publicity be a contributor to the troubled man’s suicide?  If the cry for vengeance and hate were not covered in local papers and television broadcasts, could Mr. Bassett been given the opportunity to pay for his crime. Perhapse be reformed through therapy?
    We will never know.
    The media is given a certain responsibility to cover facts.  It also has the privilege to publicize the collected and independent views of its public.  Censorship is something that should not be allowed.  But consideration of what should be put in, as far as quotes, could have been better considered in this particular case.
    What lays on the shoulders of a reporter is more than a deadline, but the events we can create through our writing.
    Three victims exist in the sad story of an abused kitten: Mercy, Gary Lee Bassett, and the public. 
    Mercy is gone.  Bassett ended it all with a gunshot.  But what about the justice that needs to be handed down to those who made death threats and offered money to physically harm Bassett?  No investigations are known to be taking place in the discovery of the people that could be responsible in helping Bassett pull the trigger.

---

EDITORS NOTE:  GET YOUR SAVINGS IN GOLD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!  THE DOLLAR IS GOING TO COLLAPSE AND YOUR MONEY WILL BE USELESS!  DON'T WAIT!  WE RECOMMEND SWISS AMERICA (LINK BELOW) AS WE HAVE BOUGHT GOLD FROM THEM IN THE PAST.  THEY ARE RELIABLE AND TRUST WORTHY!