The media is in the simplification business. We try to simplify reality.

In a world that is complex and cruel and fast-moving, our preferred question often is: “Why did it happen?”

KINSELLA: Attacks on Jews show antisemitism exploding globally Back to video

Assigning motive following newsworthy events – terrible, horrific events – is what we usually focus on first.

A madman gets in his pickup, armed with a gun, with about $2,000 worth of explosives loaded in the back. And then he drives through the doors of Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan – intent on killing hundreds of Jewish kids.

The terrorist is killed before he can kill anyone else.

Then the question is inevitably heard: why did it happen?

Some of the answers given by some media, and some experts and politicians, are appalling – or offer questions that already contain the answer. The mayor of nearby Dearborn, Mich., for instance, issues a statement declaring that the terrorist “lost several members of his own family … in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”

Does that imply the attack was justified, somehow?

A CTV headline: “Investigators working to determine exact reason for attack at Michigan synagogue.”

A CBS News veteran with a similarly unaware report: the terrorist “had become reclusive,” she said. “He........

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