NBC DUMPS IMUS, BROADCASTS CHO (LONSBERRY)

boblonsberry.com ^ | 04/20/07 | Bob Lonsberry

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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.

[Rodney King]

Exactly.

[Enterprise]

Exactly - it’s been over 5 years since 9/11, and ostensibly, it’s still soon for NBC to show the horrors. Bunch of steenkin POS’s.