Posted on 04/20/2007 6:33:57 AM PDT by shortstop
How is it that no one at NBC knew what everyone in America knows?
How did the self-important network types not know that you don’t reward murderers, that you don’t devastate survivors, that you don’t play into the hands of a monster?
How did NBC not know that showing that stuff was wrong? Has the blood lust of what used to be called the news gotten so exhilarating that stroking the ego of a dead psychopath is considered good television? Have the talking heads diverted so far from the values and sensibilities of the American mainstream that their souls and consciences are cold and dead?
Must be.
Because that was wrong.
With his first two victims still dead where they dropped and his next 30 victims just settling into their classes, demon boy stood waiting for the post office to open. And a minute after it did he had his legacy on the way. His little time capsule of evil and insanity.
Caught up in the evolving fantasy of criminal celebrity, this particular dog left nothing to chance. He put together his own press kit, with dozens of video clips and dozens of still pictures and page after page of hateful spitting in the face of the people whose lives he destroyed.
He posed like characters in a movie, he strutted in his commando get up, he pointed the gun at the camera.
He defined himself for all the world to see, a post mortem demand for attention and adulation, a guttural “Look at me!” mixed with a finger he was giving society.
And NBC went along with it.
The peacock network became the bull crap network. Seemingly oblivious to the degree of manipulation it was surrendering to, NBC decided that it’s all a game of gotcha, some new wrinkle in the 24-hour news cycle in which anything goes and you ignore the fact that there are real people on the other end.
You ignore the fact that those pictures will sicken some and arouse others. You forget about the broken-hearted families and the budding wannabes, you forget about everything but the perverted sense of soulless journalism that seethes in the arrogant heart of the network news.
Because other people’s suffering is your bread and butter. It’s like you get turned on that this was a record number of deaths, you focus in on tears in a pornography of exploitation, you send your anchors to stand on the drill field like they do week after week for story after story.
While today’s graphic is a sickening shell of a shaved-head freak ranting on America’s televisions.
And NBC is his partner in achieving the fame he sought. And NBC is his partner in perpetuating the belief among the stunted underclass of like-minded beasts that the price of notoriety is paid in other people’s blood. NBC has told every loser in the world that if you want to get on TV, all you have to do is kill a bunch of people and send out some pictures.
Shame on NBC.
And shame on NBC for shifting the blame to others.
The package came to NBC. The network made copies and passed the package to the FBI. A few hours later, NBC was broadcasting pictures and hate around the globe. The network too pure for Don Imus felt fine about giving a platform to Cho Seung-Hui.
NBC had the power to make sure those images never saw the light of day. NBC had the power to protect the families and society. NBC had the power to take away the incentive for the next guy to come along with his package and his pile of bodies.
The materials given to the FBI might never have been made public. Inasmuch as there will be no trial, they would not be introduced as evidence and consequently would probably stay confidential. That left NBC in the catbird seat.
And NBC chose to play the pimp.
Without consulting with anyone involved – not the families, not the school, not the police – NBC broadcast a murderer’s slander of his victims.
And America was enraged.
While NBC clung to its precious principles.
How is it that no one at NBC knew what everyone in America knows?
And how is it that NBC didn’t care?
This is about more than some pictures, it is about a news business which preys on society instead of serving it. It is about a news industry that actively promotes division and despair, that feeds on conflict and condemnation, that openly hates the society it reports on and profits from.
This added insult to injury.
This was immoral and wrong.
And this, for NBC news viewers, should be the last straw.
It’s time to change the channel.
Thank you. I expanded it a little in post #20.
So you don't think the video was news that most of the world wanted to see? Should news be censored to protect victims families from seeing the killer? The victims families can always not watch it.
My prior posts on other threads are that I believe NBC should have waited a reasonable time before showing the videos.
NBC knows. It’s just that they also know that if they help create more of tehse incidents, it will be easier to create a demad to enact their gun-grabbing, anti-freedom agenda.
They're liberals. Next question.
You just changed the subject. Planned evil acts? In this case the evil act was done and the perp dead. But no, I am not saying that NBC "should" have done it or "should not have" done it. They are a news organization, and their job is to publish the news. This was news, they published it. It doesn't bother me one way or the other. It is interesting to me, however, that so many people who claim they shouldn't have shown it seem to have watched it.
It would have been news to tell viewers that such a package had been received and IMMEDIATELY turned over to the FBI.
The great thing about media is that you can copy it, so you can show it AND turn it over to the fbi. It is not an either/or.
Should NBC become a partner with Al Jazeera, for instance? Just where would you draw the line between 'news' and 'publicity.'
No. Al jazeera is engaged in ongoing criminal activities. If all al qaeada were killed somehow (i know that can't happen) then I would have no problem with someone showing a tape of Bin Laden's last words.
The congregation of the clueless at NBC must have missed the part in Cho’s video where he lauds the Columbine killers of April 20, 1999, as “martyrs.” He was 13 at the time, and I’m sure he would be pleased to know that somewhere in this country there are teenage boys this morning, watching his video and wishing they could have their faces all over TV playing in their own fantasy video game...and plotting how they will beat Cho’s record of 32 kills and set the new record in this deadly “game.”
NBC should have its license pulled, but the FAA is as pathetic as they are when it comes to protecting the public airways.
No it wasn't. The shootings were news. This psycho's ramblings were not news... they were sensationalism. If NBC had stuck them in a box and maybe showed parts of them a month, a year or ten years from now, (like the Zapgruder(sp?) film) that would have been different. But to show it while the bodies of his victims were still warm and their families still in a state of shock was the cruelest damn editorial decision ever made.
And BTW... NBC was not alone. Every other network copied and showed them too and every damn newspaper splashed his words across the front page.
It kind of finally proves (as if we needed any further proof) that there is really no such thing a journalism. They are all just carnival barkers doing anything to hustle people into their 24/7 freak show.
We can’t see the video from 9/11 because it’s too graphic and yet, this.......
Dear Rodney,
Cho killed 2 people about 7:15am. Then he went back to his dorm room and put together the videos, still photos, and writings. Then he went to the post office, waited for it to open at 9:00am and mailed his “manifesto” to his chosen network: NBC.
Then he went to Norris Hall and killed 30 more people, before offing himself.
All that NBC did was give this twisted evil person the fame that he wanted.
Anyone who carps about the DBM not showing footage of 9/11 but at the same time rants about NBC showing this video is a huge hypocrit.
They(NBC) are in the news business, this is news. People wanted to know why he did it, well the video and other evidence he sent of his hate America screed tells the tale. This evidence is extremely damaging to the left as all of his rants are right out of the left wings playbook.
They(the left) are screeching and trying to deny it but all one has to do is listen to any left wing idiot and then listen to Cho's ravings and you will see the similarity. I think NBC did America a favor by broadcasting this stuff, the left can't deny he said it because there it is in all it's evil, for everyone to hear.
American liberals are down to sadism. The Tarantino demographic let loose with corporate financial backing.
They also gave the world the information that most of the world wanted to see, as evidenced by the high ratings. But, perhaps, we should install you as the federal media censor and you can decide what the people have the right to see and what they don't.
I guess you really enjoyed the continuous loop of the Rodney King beating, too. How much time do you spend watching car chases? Networks do put on stuff that some people watch. Need we enumerate all the trash that is on TV? That does not make it right or ethical.
No, because it was dishonest, they never showed the beginning where I attacked the officers.
How much time do you spend watching car chases?
Very little.
Networks do put on stuff that some people watch.
I would say "most". My guess is that the networks (since their financial well being depends on it) know better what people want to watch than you or I do.
Need we enumerate all the trash that is on TV?
No.
That does not make it right or ethical.
You are correct, but that doesn't mean that phony offendedness is the answer.
So you are judging that my emotional and intellectual responses are phony? Good work! Wow! I’m impressed! All the way through the internet!
Well, phony is probably not the right word. I am sure that you aren't faking it. But, sitll, somewhere down the line you have convinced yourself to get outraged over petty things that others do that have no effect on you.
Were I a News Director and received the same materials NBC received, I would have aired them. In that position, deciding which news would be aired would be my business, and the Cho massacre and video/pics/writings were newsworthy. As such, I would not hesitate to air them on that day’s news cycle - but would have not carried them beyond that.
This really isn’t rocket science.
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