Va Tech Shooter sends "images, letter" to NBC

Ever wonder why they feel such antipathy toward the mainstream media? Hmmm.

 

Maybe they watched the first press conference, where some idiots were screaming at the cop as he tried to talk . . . . . . that made me hate being a member of the media.

Of course, the average reader/viewer has little concept of what the media's role is supposed to be. Sports fans don't understand why we don't love their team, and news consumers don't get why we don't rip their least favorite politician every chance we get.

And . . . the people that so haughtily voted that the video opens the door to copycats forget that A. Copycats are likely because of the sheer heinousness of the crime, NOT the guy taking pictures of himself; and B. They're the very people who can't get enough of the news on this (and every other salacious story people have complained about recently while devouring every bit of information).

Which is of course why they were at abc.com to take such a poll.

 

If this is how the media feels about their customer, imagine how those that you cover feel about you. Having been on that end I'll tell you, leaches and parasites

 

Nancy Grace is defending the media right now.

 

I find it laughable that people reading coverage of the Va Tech shootings would vote that basically they shouldn't be reading or seeing something about the Va Tech shootings.

 

Ok, maybe I need to rethink my position now.

 

Yes, it was startling.

Glenn Beck spent his opening bit mocking the killer.

 

I'm not sifting through all 11 pages of this thread -- although I'm sure it made for some fascinating reading.
At the very least, I think they should have waited. For the families sake.

 

If somebody has never seen the inside of a newsroom, do they really have any business lecturing anybody on journalism ethics?

 

Anna Nicole Smith would probably be a good example of that sensationalism. But if people can't tell the difference between that saga and someone shooting 32 classmates dead before turning the gun on himself, that's sad.

 

Especially if they're journalists.

From Gawker.com as of 45 minutes ago:

CNN Bans Use Of Virginia Tech Killer Footage

Guess CNN feels like they've milked the Virginia Tech killer video dry. The following memo just came down:

Subject: Cho video and gun pictures--NO MORE USEAGE!!!

Per Jon Klein,

*No more use of the Cho videotape on our air.

* No more use of pictures of Cho with guns.

Media Operations is in the process of killing out of the system all vo's and sots with still pictures of Cho holding guns plus all video of him talking.

The John King package, First Killing Why?, and the Sean Callebs pkg. Cho the Early Years have been updated using appropriate video. All packages are being updated on a per request basis.

The library will be archiving the original versions of the packages, but these can only be run per approval from Standards and Practices.

Well, great! Now the victims' families can feel better about appearing on CNN. Everyone wins!

*******

I haven't yet seen this corroborated elsewhere. If true, however, it raises some interesting questions about the use of the material in the first place. I thought one of the comments on the Gawker post particularly telling.

So the modern job of a managing editor in this news cycle for a major story would be:

PHASE ONE

Get the story first at all costs
Throw up anything and everything you can find on the story
Exclusivize as much content as possible

PHASE TWO

Quickly identify the backlash
Delete as much as possible
Blame other networks