I can’t for the life of me see what the big deal is. This was news. A tape from the guy before the attack. The whole country is wondering why he did it, and a tape shows up. People wanted to see it, so NBC showed it.
After the fact, people sit around and play the “gee, from my high and mighty chair I think I will pontificate on what news organizations should and should not be allowed to show”.
It was news. That is the business NBC is in.
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.