Interior minister of German federal state Baden-Württemberg Heribert Rech, the police and the media have all been tricked by some kid who photoshopped a hoax message from Tim K., the 17 year old who went on a killing spree in Germany this week.

A screenshot of the hoax message, apparently posted to some board on German site Krautchan.net, went floating through the media in the aftermath of the tragedy. The spoof said Tim K. didn't feel recognised and felt like grilling his former school, i.e. going on a killing spree. Rech and the police under his command swallowed the hoax hook, line and sinker. Spiegel Online, the online site of weekly magazine Der Spiegel, claims their editors doubted the message was true, but decided to go ahead with their competitors for clicks and write all about it after Rech presented the message as fact.

Rech now looks like an incompetent fool and the media is quick to say he's to blame for leading them to report about a hoax. Telepolis, the online magazine of the reputed IT mag publisher Heise Verlag, blamed both the police and media - the police for being too rash, the media for wanting something to report as fast as possible, and as first if possible. The author couldn't help but poke Spiegel Online in the ribs and eyeball after the site said they thought it was a fake yet went along with the crow.

Whatever the truth may be, hopping on board the shock and horror pornography train didn't feel good from this writer's point of view. The case typically exemplifies the problem of online media - waiting too long for facts means no revenue through ad traffic on rumours. We're not free from guilt either, currently on the look out for a new scoop from India or anywhere else on the world. Sometimes its just better to sit something out, and any connection between the web and the school shooting in rural Winnenden was one of those things.

Indeed, a pattern of reaction can be made out since the first school shooting here in Germany. A few things are always first to be blamed - gun laws, media, video games and horror movies. Teacher organisation Deutscher Philologenverband demands gun laws be tightened, as access to guns made it possible for kids to put fantasies into action.

However, gun laws were already tightened after the first school massacre in Erfurt, back in April 2002. Conservative party Christian Social Union (CSU) has blamed violent 'killer games', as playing Counterstrike will turn disturbed and distressed kids with mental health problems into school shooters.

Both blame games rest on a fundamental attribution error - the idea that banning one thing or the other will generate non-violent children.

One thing however is never blamed - the school system itself which exercises power over kids, a power which unsophisticated kids can interpret as violence against them. X