Va Tech Shooter sends "images, letter" to NBC

Think NBC is doing a service? How about trying to profit through exploitation:
this from washingtonpost.com:
"NBC apparently did not share the contents of the package, including the video, with other networks, but at the end of "Nightly News," (Brian) Williams -- sounding not unlike a carnival huckster at that moment -- told viewers to be sure to tune in the "Today" show for more excerpts, more ravings from the dead killer. Some of the images also aired immediately following "Nightly News" on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews, a nightly news-talk show on NBC-owned cable network MSNBC."

 

Glad it's working.

It actually predates the Unabomber back to the Zodiac Killer at least.

Apparently, since bin Laden videos always make it to the airwaves.

I guess we should pull Mein Kampf from all bookshelves and not ever write about Hitler's motives.

 

Hell, I wouldn't share it either.

 

Yeah, the old "cat's out of the bag anyway" defense, so might as well just give the psychopaths what they want.

And if your characterization that someone like me shouldn't be in the news media is correct, surely you should be a network executive.

You've got the same lack of soul. Just report, report, report. Damn the consequences.

 

Maybe you should have shown the bodies falling from the buildings and and the beheadings. It was true, it was factual. It also may have truely been the final pieces that the American people needed to know about how viscious, uncaring, bloodthristy and inhumane the terrorists actually are.

 

The recording of the gunshots is coverage of the event. Airing the self-rationalizing explanatory rants of a madman - already quite demonstrably insane, by virtue of the act itself - simply heaps more fame on him, and acts as a goad to others who seek that same fame. He sought to have those tapes aired as a justification for what he'd done. NBC has now done that for him.

As to how many role models any potential shooter already has, does the risk of adding to that gruesome body of self-delusional inspiration not far outweigh the small reward of airing these tapes? Do you really think that parents can make use of these words and images to diagnose their own children? Weren't the tapes of the Columbine shooters (aired months, not minutes after the shootings) supposed to help in the same way?

And I introduced the beheadings - I could have said "flag-draped coffins" or "wounded Marines" - only as an example of how we already willingly edit ourselves on behalf of the public and their "right" or "need" to know.

 

The media knows better than you or me. Flagged drapped coffins are need to be viewed by the public, but they, Mommy and Daddy Media need to shield us from the beheadings. Don't ask why, the journalists know right from wrong and have neither the time nor inclination to explain themselves. A simple thank you from us to them would suffice.

 

Anyone else shocked the smoking gun(t) hasn't gotten a comple copy of the letter yet?

 

Air it.

It added details to the story we didn't have prior to these tapes. All we heard is he was a silent, anti-social type. From that, folks may have drawn a picture of a loner, snapping out of control in a single, instantaneous reaction.

This shows so much more. First of all, it shows he could talk, in fact, that he could be a chatty little bugger, which shows how disingenuous of a person he was, contrary to all his other social interactions. And it shows the venom and evil in his thoughts and words that eventually translated to action. And it gives more insight into how premeditated the whole event was.

And people say he was mentally ill. After seeing these tapes, I'm not so sure. I'm think he was just evil. A bad, bad human being. And you don't have to be mentally ill to be bad.

 

Of course it's newsworthy.

But is it necessary?

Is it necessary that it be aired largely unassessed?

Without any kind of context?

Before the first funeral?

We don't trust our readers and viewers to read or see 99% of what passes through our hands in raw form. Why this?

Why the rush? Except for the sake of the scoop?

We make decisions to delay, assess, filter, contextualize things all the time. Why not this? Except the scoop?

 

So whether or not something is newsworthy or compelling is the only standard for deciding to air big chunks of a psychopathic murderer's manifesto? There's no consideration of consequences? And we should do it because that's what any other guy would do?

Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't belong in the journalism business. I have a conscience that some of you here are displaying you don't have.