HE SHOT HIS DOG!… oh yeah, his wife was hit too
Written by ekg on May 6, 2009 – 11:52 am -I’m not going to get into the story because we’ve all heard everything there is to hear, but I can’t stay silent on one glaring problem with people today.
Shannon Burke accused of shooting of dog, wife
Notice anything?
Shannon Burke arrested for shooting dog, grazing wife
Here is the first few sentences from another news site
Who else gets angry at their dog and threatens to shoot it?
Cops say Burke got ticked at his dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. His solution: Pick up a handgun and threaten to shoot it.
The gun discharged, and the bullet went through the dog’s leg. The same bullet struck his wife Catherine on the side of her head, reports WESH News.
It takes that writer 53 words to finally mention the wife that was also shot, 53 words before she can get a quick nod in her direction. The entire piece is about the poor dog, what kind of dog, the threatening and shooting of the dog and Oh by the way his wife was shot in the head too.
After the Orlando Sentinel released photos of Catherine Burke and her dog, the Monsters of the Morning, the morning show on WTKS 104.1 took calls on the whole fiasco because they understood the need for people to vent their feelings on this. They also understood that all other locals news and radio programs were going to take advantage of the situation and talk about it so they decided why not let the people hear and say what they want from the station at the center of the controversy.
Here’s the problem. I can’t count how many calls or how many posts on the muchedumbre forum have lamented over the dog first and then if she’s lucky, over Catherine. There is even a thread titled
Burke fired…he injured his dog and wife but killed his career at REAL radio
In another thread, a post that reads..
Nothing about the his wife Catherine at all, just the dog.
One caller to the Monsters said Shannon Burke was on the same level as Richard McTear. Who is Richard McTear? Oh well he’s the scum-bag asshole who after getting into a fight with his 17 year old girlfriend, grabbed their 3 month old baby and threw him on the concrete and then kidnapped him. As if that wasn’t enough, while driving down I-275 he threw the baby out the window of his car killing him. Now, why did this caller equate Shannon Burke to this reptile? Because he shot his dog. Not because he also shot his wife, but because he shot the dog (the dog lived by the way). When called on this by Dirty Jim the caller replied that the dog was innocent, the wife though…. well she could have left at anytime.
The dog.. was innocent… meaning what? That Catherine deserved what she got because she didn’t leave? I really don’t know if that’s what people mean when they say something like that but it is a valid question that I would like someone to answer because I really don’t know of another way to take that kind of statement.
I am not excusing what Burke did in any way. But I am questioning the headlines when they read “Radio personalty shoots dog and wife” and even more I question why there seems to be so little outrage over the shooting of his wife Catherine? Even the Orlando Sentinel when putting the photos up on their website, put the dog’s photos up first!
We love our pets, we think of them like our children…but what Shannon did is not on the same level as the man who threw his own baby onto the concrete and then chucked him out of his car window while he was driving down the interstate. One is the horrific death of an infant, the other is a dog who was shot in the leg and lost it’s tail. They are both sad, but they do not carry the same weight.
Maybe it’s all kind of like they say in Hollywood, never work with children and animals. Well, never get shot in the head by your husband after he shoots the dog because the dog will get the sympathy because it was innocent and you? Well you could have left.
I think we need to re-arrange some priorities here…
Tags: Burke arrested a 3rd time, Burke re-arrested, Catherine Burke, Daniel Dennis, Dirty Jim, Monsters, Monsters in the Morning, MucheDumbre, Orlando Sentinel, Radio Host arrested again, Real Radio 104.1, RealRadio 104.1, Richard McTear, Russ Rollins, Shannon Burke, shoots dog and wife, WESH, WTKS
Posted in MucheDumbre, Proper Gander (a skewed view) | 10 Comments »
May 6th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I think the headlines would have read differently had he aimed the gun at his wife, discharged it, and after the bullet hit his wife, ricocheted and hit the dog.
The headlines and the stories seem to be reading in the order of events.
I don’t know what was going through his head, probably not much since it was an extremely dumbass manouvre to be waving a loaded weapon in the first place, not to mention the dog has no idea what a gun is and wouldn’t feel threatened by it, but I don’t think his wife was ever an intended target.
I suppose the stories could have been written along the lines of;
“Catherine Burke was grazed by a richocheting bullet after her husband Shannon Burke shot their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.”
But it would have still eventually focused more on the dog and Shannon as more details about the story were told.
May 6th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
“I am not excusing what Burke did in any way. But I am questioning the headlines when they read “Radio personalty shoots dog and wife”…”
I’m in agreeance with you, but if I had to speculate why they are written that way perhaps it’s because he intended to shoot the dog. He didn’t intend to shoot the wife?
Again, that’s no excuse. You should never pull a gun unless you intend to use it, and even if you ARE shooting a gun wielding intruder in your home, you are responsible for ensuring that nobody or nothing you DONT want shot is behind the intended target. That’s why I have glaser safety slugs in my pistol. They are “safer” because they fragment into the first thing they hit, be that the intruder, a wall, what have you.
May 6th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Jimmy and MDD… I thought about what both of you said.. but I’ve seen other headlines that say “Injuries to Shannon Burke’s wife and dog after shooting” and “Radio DJ arrested for shooting wife, dog”
I think there are just some ppl who feel more for the dog for whatever reason..that’s the only thing that explains why ppl are weeping and severely angry over the dog.. but ehhhh not so much over her..
example..the guy who called the MoM today all pissed and equated Burke to the guy who killed his kid all b/c he shot the innocent dog..
if two were injured and you only call one of them innocent..what are you calling the 2nd? and wtf?
I don’t know.. I saw the same kind of anger towards Michael Vick and found it odd.. not that I excuse Vick or Burke.. but when I think of heinous criminals… Vick just doesn’t register on my scale…
May 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I agree and thought much the same myself reading the comments on the board. A lot of outrage about the dog, the wife gets a minor mention at best.
A dog is a dog. An animal. Catherine is a human being. There should be a world of difference in the outrage over a woman being shot as opposed to a dog.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
OMG HE SHOT HIS DOG?!?!
May 7th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Just a quick update for ya…
Channel 9 was running the news story this morning about Shannon Burke being arrested again, and whenever they were explaining the first incident, they were saying he had been arrested for shooting his wife and dog.
Of course, the first time I heard the new story this morning they were saying “Real Radio Talkshow host”. However, the next time they ran it they got it correct and said, “Former Real Radio Talkshow host”. It does seem to be typical of the media to rush something out as quickly as possible (gotta be first ya know) and then worry about fixing the facts later.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Thanks for the update Jimmy :)
May 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I knew I should have checked for blogs earlier…
Although I agree with your point, ekg, please consider this: Cathy had a choice to be brought into the household with that lunatic. The dog didn’t.
May 8th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Howie.. Cathy didn’t make the choice to be shot.. and at the end of the day, she’s a human and the dog isn’t..
I feel for the dog.. but they are disposable and replaceable… people aren’t.
They are disposable b/c …when a dog is sick you put it down.. when it’s vicious you put it down.. or when you lose one.. you get a new one..
if your house was on fire and you could only save your child or your dog who do you pick? and why?
I love my dogs and my cat and treat them better than I treat a lot of ppl ;)-HA! .. but they still don’t equal a person.
choice or not.. she didn’t deserve to be shot either and she is going to have a harder time then the pooch..
June 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am
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