> Do you really think that?
>
> Apparently, they had watched 'Home Alone'
>before hand. What does that tell us about the
>power of the media on young children in
>particular?
>

Oh give me a break. Home Alone made them do it? The least they could have said was they'd watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Show me the part in Home Alone where two 10 year olds murder a 2 year old by letting a train cut him in half.

The media only has "power" over those who let it have power over them. These children had to have been a little cracked in the first place to do something like this. I watched slasher flicks when I was 10 and was able to discern the difference between "real" and "make believe". Children aren't always as innocent as we sometimes think. They can be taught the difference between right and wrong and real and pretend. Any parent worth anything WOULD teach them these things.

I totally don't buy the "They didn't know better" excuse, or the "Blame the Media" excuse. You can't tell me that when this child began screaming and crying from the torture, and when his blood spattered all over them when they hit him with bricks, that they didn't KNOW that they were hurting him and were doing something terribly wrong.

Ten year olds can be vicious and evil as easily as twenty or forty year olds. Obviously I don't know all the facts of this case, but I can honestly say that if I'd heard about what they'd done and that they'd taken a ride in old sparky for their heinous actions, I wouldn't have shed *too* many tears.

-- Dave