Posted on 04/19/2007 3:30:12 PM PDT by ventanax5
— The videos of Seung-hui Cho, the man who fatally shot 32 people at Virginia Tech on Monday and then killed himself, shouldn't have been released because they don't offer the public any greater understanding of the gruesome crime, said Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and ABC News consultant, on "Good Morning America" today.
"If anybody cares about the victims in Blacksburg and if anybody cares about their children, stop showing this video now. Take it off the Internet. Let it be relegated to YouTube," Welner said. "This is a social catastrophe. Showing the video is a social catastrophe."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
But ABC would have done the same thing if they'd gotten the DVD wouldn't they?
Good thing he sent that package to NBC, huh?
The world is mean, brutish and nasty.
Look away at your own peril.
are you kidding , if ABC had received those tapes, Disney would have a new character at Disneyword next month.
Isn't YouTube part of the Internet?
That is a powerful, troubling, and true statement.
You said — “I could not agree more. IMHO NBC has opened themselves up to a big time lawsuit. They have in effect fulfilled the murderers last desire.”
Well, I don’t agree with that. It should be released. People should know fully what he was like, what he did before, how he acted, how he talked — so that they will be aware of others doing the same things. Maybe people will intervene with *more determination* next time another guy like this shows up.
People simply didn’t act with forcefulness in this situation, when it was all going on. By showing this, we can see how whacked he was and be aware of certain wordings and phrases and “thinking” that lead to things like this.
People need to be aware — and face it *straight up* — the evil that is out there in some people.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Yes, I think ABC would have done exactly the same thing if Cho had sent them the video and his manifesto.
What I find troubling are all these psychiatric experts who are Monday morning quarterbacks. I also find it a bit offensive for them to suggest that because we learned nothing new about the crime, there is no value to showing the video. I think there is great value in showing the video because doing so may make some people wake up to the fact that there are people out there who intend to do great harm—and we need to be prepared individually and as a society to oppose them with whatever force is necessary.
This psychiaquack should be trying to answer the question: Why are the only two people to have opposed Cho a 75 year old professor and a 40 something professor. The former was a Holocaust survivor; the latter had served in the military. Or perhaps I should phrase the question differently, why were all the male students in those classes so sheepishly waiting to be shot dead rather then taking action to save some lives if not their own?
You said — “Look away at your own peril.”
That’s exactly right. Look in the face of evil and understand what went on. Then, next time people might act more *forcefully* when some other “Cho” shows up on the scene — but *before* he gets really whacked out....
Regards,
Star Traveler
I have mixed feelings. I am sympathetic to those families grieving. On the other hand, I think there is some purpose served in helping people understand what a mass murderer in the making says and acts like. Mass murderers almost all have the exact emotional and psychological profile.
LOL!! Ain’t that the truth!
I don’t think they should have aired it.
By showing only bits, they were deciding what message the kid wanted to convey. Since we don’t know what was in the entire manifesto, we really don’t know if they presented it accurately, or did like so many news organizations do...put their own slant on it.
Show it all or show none at all...but I, personally, think it shouldn’t be shown.
“Take it off the Internet. Let it be relegated to YouTube,”
Which is it? Make up your mind, dopey psychologist.
Details, details.
That's one way to look at it, I suppose. The remedy is simple, don't mention or display his name. Let his insanity speak for him in total anonymity.
I believe, absolutely, that neither our elected officials, nor unelected media types should decide what news we may watch. And it is news.
Strange, if sensitivity is the game, why on earth were the images of bodies being carried our just fine? Speaking for myself, that was much more disturbing. I am perplexed.
You said — “What I find troubling are all these psychiatric experts who are Monday morning quarterbacks. I also find it a bit offensive for them to suggest that because we learned nothing new about the crime, there is no value to showing the video. I think there is great value in showing the video because doing so may make some people wake up to the fact that there are people out there who intend to do great harm—and we need to be prepared individually and as a society to oppose them with whatever force is necessary.”
This is exactly right. There are too many people who want to say, “Don’t show me this...” but will catisgate others for not being *aware* enough to have done something about it before. You become aware when the public is *made aware* — by exposing the public to the true nature of these kinds of disturbed and evil people (and he was evil in what he did, for sure...).
Regards,
Star Traveler
Nope. You are wrong about that and here is why:
If you and I don't get to see all of these tapes we will have no assurance that some PC sensitive soul at NBC has decided that there is something that this jerk said that the public should not know. Too allow the very leftist NBC news staff to assume this position as censor would be a huge mistake. (Imagine if he said something that would indicate that Hillary was the one good person in the universe. Would NBC show you that?) Much better to let it all out and let the public analyze it to death. Out of that we should have the best possible understanding of his motives and, in the end, that is really all there is to know.
My prediction: The Left will not want it shown and the Right will. If it turns out that way ask yourself why that is so.
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