Police: Gunman's estranged wife worked at home

I chose to analyze the story of the gunman, Robert Stewart, in North Carolina who has been accused of killing eight people at a nursing home. I found articles about this story on CNN.com and on the blog website Salon.com. Both sites discuss the idea that the killer chose the nursing home because his estranged wife worked there.

Surprisingly, both websites frame the story similarly. On CNN, the story is framed in a way that supports the idea that the gunman began his rampage because his wife worked there. Early in the report, the city’s police chief is interviewed, claiming that he believes the two were separated at the time of the shooting, potentially causing hard feelings and anger on Stewart’s end. One of the killer’s ex-wives was also interviewed in the story. She expressed that he occasionally had violent outbursts from time to time and that she wasn’t surprised to hear that he was the attacker. Her statement once again supports the idea that the gunman was an angry man and that previous hard feelings towards his estranged wife most likely led him to attack. I found it interesting that the bulleted points at the beginning of the article backed up the fact that the “alleged gunman’s wife worked at the nursing home,” which is the title of the article. However, once I read the entire article, only the first few sentences discuss this point. A majority of the content is about his angry and violent past, and what authorities believe caused him to rebel.

On the blog website Salon.com, the frame is fairly similar. The most noticeable difference is the amount of information that is mentioned about the shooter’s estranged wife and how their rocky relationship could’ve caused him to act out at that specific nursing home. In the article, there is mention of what another outside source had to say about the idea. The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC, reported the name of his wife, the fact that the two still shared a home together, and clarification that she was in fact working at the nursing home at the time of the shooting. Salon.com shares much more information about the wife and the details of their relationship. The included sources better support the title of the article: “Police: Gunman’s estranged wife worked at home.” The article includes sources that had relationships with Stewart, which makes the information about him and his estranged wife more credible. Overall, I think the Salon.com article does a better job of framing the story based on the title of the article. When we read the title, we make assumptions as to what the story is going to be about, and we are provided with important information about the troubled relationship.

Links: http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/03/30/D978BKNO0_nursing_home_shooting/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/30/nursing.home.shooting/index.html