Va Tech Shooter sends "images, letter" to NBC

No it doesn't. The concepts of conscience and soul in this discussion have nothing to do with breaking down or blubbering.

Move on. Your analogy stinks.

 

News is news, pal. Even when it's unpleasant.

 

My argument has nothing to do with the unpleasantness of news either.

 

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this, 21. I don't think this is the "why." This is a madman's delusional rationalization of the "why." It's not a diagnostic tool, it's theater.

I would completely agree with airing this in its entirety and immediately - if it had been received before the shootings. Then it's material to public safety and to the process of investigating a public threat - as was the case with the publication of Unabomber, Son of Sam, Zodiac, et al. Airing it without mediation after the fact is mere sensationalism.

This is news, certainly - but so were the flag-draped coffins of US soldiers and the pictures of dead Iraqi children that we chose not to print.

 

Chose not to print? I think news organizations were pressured not to print them and instructed not to photograph them. And they submitted to those wishes instead of showing truth to their viewers and readers.

Should everything Cho had in the package be put out for public consumption? Probably not. But to shield people from this under the guise of giving him the final word (which they're not) or to prevent copycats (is this really a potential problem?) is wrong. He's not being made into a celebrity or a martyr. There's a Who as well as a Why to the story and it's important to know who he was. And if it's not, then it's time to shut down the whole story, because it's done and over.

 

They don't work that way, Jack.
They go off for reasons known only to themselves. He didn't do this to get famous. He did this to avenge some "wrongs" that occurred to his twisted mind. He wanted to world to know why he'd done WHAT HE ALREADY HAD DONE. It's the story. Run it.
Now, an endless loop on 24-hour cable is another deal.
One special. Publicize the hell out of it. And then, only thereafter as part of packages about the ongoing story to which this stuff is relevant.

 

It's part of the why, but not the complete story. He's far too vague in that video for us to know the why. There's more to this.

 

I think sending a multimedia package (one where he mentions being remembered as a Christ-like figure) to a major news organization is pretty good evidence that he did want to "get famous," but that's irrelevant to me anyway. Even if it was only to let the world know why he'd done what he had already done, the "next Cho" now knows he has the vehicle to do that.

It's not Cho I'm worried about. Whether or not NBC gave *him* what he wanted isn't that important, after the fact. What's worrisome is that other megalomaniac nuts now know they can get what they want, encouraging them to proceed.

 

I agree with the premise that he thought he was avenging a wrong. Just like the kids at Columbine, or Whitman, or Huberty. That part never changes.

But if he doesn't seek fame, why send the materials to a television network?

 

Dear CNN:

Could we come up with a better way of putting it on the on-screen graphics than "NBC under fire for releasing video"?

Yours,

Mr. E. Meat.

 

I didn't need a single image, and neither does anyone else with more than a thimbleful of grey gloop in the noggin, to confirm a single word of what you wrote above.

It was pure prurience.