Hooray for the Media!

[sdelmonte]

Kudos to NBC and to everyone else in the American media who felt we needed to see those images of the VT Killer with his guns. You've all given him something I'm sure he wanted and that he didn't deserve: more attention.

Every time we see anything like this, be it a propaganda video from jihadists or an interview with a man on death row, I get repulsed and disgusted. Freedom of the press doesn't mean you are obiligated to give the bad guys in this world equal time. Yes, it's true that some of these things will find their way to the Internet without your help. Yes, I know you are in the business of selling papers and getting ratings. That doesn't excuse you.

But I know better to hope that the next time NBC or Al-Jazeera or CNN or any media outlet gets its hands on a tape from a terrorist or a killer, or the next time the phone rings and some warlord or crimelord is offering an exclusive, that someone will say, "sorry, we are a news outlet and not a source for your propaganda and your need to be in the spotlight." I just wish it would, just once.

That is all.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I disagree -- we need to know what was going on in his head. This was not the propaganda video of a criminal, or a "manifesto" in the sense of the Unabomber's tract. It was the final statement of a young man who started out with promise and went terribly, horribly wrong. It is obvious that something was wrong before now, and maybe knowing more about what happened here might give some insight that might allow authorities to help others before they similarly go finally wrong.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I could do without the rockstar poses with guns on the front of the paper. I appreciate the need to figure out how this happened so we can prevent it by seeing the signs before it strikes again, but a half page front page picture of the kid posing with his weapons is excessive.