Journalism or Exhibitionism?

cho.jpg

Murderers being concerned with PR is nothing new. Hitler used pomp and circumstance to persuade an entire nation. Saddam playfully ruffled the hair of young British hostage on television.

But Cho, the notorious Virginia Tech killer, surprised me. After shooting two people and before shooting dozens more, he made a trip to the post office to send video, pictures, and a manifesto-of-sorts to NBC.

They received the video yesterday, and I can just imagine the difficult decision they faced: show the video and award a posthumous national voice to a suicidal killer or bury it and risk being accused of hiding the truth?

Did NBC do the right thing?

  • posted on 19 April 2007
  • by Jesse

InterAction:

20 April 20071. ren:

I think NBC was in a no-win situation. I think they chose the right amount of it all to broadcast. Now, though, I'd like for them to quit talking about him. Quit speculating about him. Tell us about the victims. Show us who they were. Help us remember them. Not the psychopath.

20 April 20072. kinsey:

i'm with ren. i think they sort of had to show it. people all over the world were so perplexed at why this would happen. and maybe this doesn't help (it certainly doesn't bring anyone back), but i think it at least gives us a little bit more understanding. it does, however, make me angry that this guy is now famous, or infamous, and his words and images are being shown around the world.

21 April 20073. Kelly:

I think they were okay in showing...but were a bit politically slanted in the portions they decided to show and were very unwise in not making a deal with the FBI before showing it to the mass public

They gave forensics the left-overs so to speak...and that may have been a bit hasty for the sake of sensationalism and ratings

YourThoughts?


(Minutia)

This entry was written by Jesse on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 11:32 AM and appears in the The Pen chapter. The previous article was entitled, "Matthew 26:11", and the next entry is called, "Wrong Way?". Bookmark the permalink, save it to del.icio.us or Digg it.

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