My power finally came back on over an hour ago. I'm tempted to exclaim "Hallelujah!"

And what the hell? I will say "Hallelujah!" But you have to be careful with religious exclamations these days. Saying "Allahu Akbar" might be taken the wrong way because I'm not a Muslim. (Ironically, though, no one cares whether I'm a Christian if I say "Hallelujah.") But sometimes I get the impression that "Allahu Akbar" is considered such a sensitive phrase that it shouldn't be reported even when it's uttered by a murderer. Because people might get the wrong idea:

The Blade ran at least five stories about the mall shooter, Sulejman Talovic, who had lived in Utah since his family fled Bosnia when he was 9 years old. Curiously, the newspaper did not report that he shouted "Allah Akbar" during his killing spree, which took the lives of five people before the police killed the gunman.

I have no idea why The Blade left that detail out since the Associated Press and other news services the paper subscribes to reported it.

We did however report that he was a Muslim, and ran a story about how terrible his relatives felt, "We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists," his aunt said in one of them. His father condemned his son's actions.

Should The Blade have given the story more prominence? Did we deliberately ignore an instance of terrorism in America?

I don't think so. Had all the details been available when the story first broke, it might have ended up on the front page. But by the next day, it was clear that every sign pointed to this being a case of a troubled teen acting out.

And Salt Lake City is a long, long way from our circulation area. Yes, Talovic was a Muslim, and he appears to have wanted people to think he was part of some terrorist movement when he launched his murderous killing spree, which was plainly designed to end his own life.

Had the evidence shown that he was acting on orders from Osama bin Laden, it would have been front-page news everywhere. But the movement he served was entirely within his head. And blaming Islam for what he did would be like blaming Christianity for David Koresh or Jim Jones.

I'm curious about something.

Should reporting be at all influenced by concerns over whether readers might get the wrong ideas about the race or religion of a person?

Right now, no one can be said to really know anything about the shooter at Virginia Tech. There are reports that witnesses thought he looked Asian, and right now Drudge has linked the story of an Asian man who says he was falsely blamed.

Certainly, irresponsible reporting can lead to hysteria in which innocent people are blamed. But that's all the more reason to do accurate, responsible, and full reporting. When I went to bed last night, I assumed that this morning I'd read the identity of the shooter in the paper, or at least it would be all over the Internet. Yet there's still nothing. Just the same "thought he looked Asian" stuff as yesterday.

When there's a horrible crime, it is normal to want to know, simply, who did it, and (if possible) why. I think that the police probably know, and I also think that some of the people working for the press know, and I wonder what is gained by not letting the public know. The more they wait, the more they encourage irresponsible speculation, like the false accusations leveled at an innocent man. Or, worse, completely ungrounded speculation like this:

Speculation about the Asian descent of the shooter centered around Indonesian Islamic terrorists, and the opening day of the trial of Jose Padilla, a member of Al Quiada.

Wouldn't it be better to just report the facts, whatever they are?

If it is known (as it is now being reported) that the shooter was Asian, and a student, there's no way that could be known without his identity being known.

If the concern involves journalistic responsibility, I think the responsible thing to do is to keep in mind that

a. speculation is irresponsible; and

b. speculation occurs when the truth is not known.

MORE: It has apparently been confirmed that at least one of the "shooters" lived in a Virginia Tech campus dormitory:

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told "Good Morning America's" Diane Sawyer this morning that there was still the possibility that there were two shooters in the separate campus attacks on Monday morning.

Steger said that the shooter who took his own life in the Norris Hall classroom building, where 30 other people were also killed, was a student of Asian descent who lived in a dormitory at Virginia Tech.

Steger referred to this person as the "second shooter."

"It appears that the second shooter was a resident in a dormitory," Steger said. "We don't have all of that confirmed but it appears he was an on-campus resident."

Sawyer asked whether there was more than one shooter involved.

"We don't know for sure. That's what we're trying to confirm," Steger said.

Steger said police had questioned a person of interest in the case.

"They have questioned them once and they'll probably continue to question the individual," he said.

MORE: The suspect has been identified. He's from South Korea:

Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech and lived in a different dorm on campus. Cho committed suicide after the attacks, and there was no indication Tuesday of any possible motive.

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints were found on the guns used in the shootings. The serial numbers on the two weapons had been filed off, the officials said.

MORE: I hardly think it needs to be pointed out that if the shooter filed off the serial numbers, he violated existing gun control laws.

Nevertheless, people will claim (as I'm sure they already are) that gun control would have stopped a murderer who already violated gun control laws before the murders.

In any case, I'm glad the details are now being reported.

AND MORE: Flashback to the Appalachian Law School shooting, which was averted because a student was armed. Omitted from most news accounts was the descrption of how it happened:

"I told him to drop his weapon, to get on the ground. ... His back was to us, and once he turned around and saw that I had a weapon, he laid his weapon down and stuck his hands in the air. At that time we approached him, and there was somewhat of a struggle, but we took him to the ground and handcuffed him until the authorities got there."

Considering that the latest incident is already being used as an argument for campus gun control, I think it's worth remembering what happened at Appalachian Law School.

MORE: Via Pajamas Media, I see that there's already a Wikipedia entry on the shooter.

And in Germany, they're blaming Charlton Heston. (Naturally. I'm sure plenty of Americans will blame him too.)

I'd still like to know how filing off serial numbers implicates Charlton Heston, or the "gun culture." Or why anyone who had already committed such gun crimes would be remotely deterred by additional laws prohibiting guns on campus.

MORE: Here's the New York Times, in today's editorial call for gun control:

What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.

Why, in the same way they caused their serial numbers to be filed off, obviously.

(I'm wondering how many of these stories and editorials will point out that the killer used illegal weapons.)

MORE: Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that Pajamas Media has added to the roundup. My favorite is the "sound advice few will take":

"If you want to get through the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre in a healthier way, don't watch the news for about a week."

UPDATE (04/18/07): My thanks to Clayton Cramer for linking this post. Cramer also learned that the yelling of "AllahuAkbar" is seriously disputed, and rather than write an extensive update, I have written a followup post.

I should not have taken the Toronto Blade's word about the AP stories, and I should have said "assuming this is true."

MORE: I agree with Dave Winer:

NBC should release all of the [VA Tech shooter] videos in Quicktime form as downloads. It's wrong to withhold them.