The Cho video
Some people are upset that NBC and other news outlets have broadcast Virginia Tech killer Cho's video .. saying it causes so much pain to the loved ones of the victims .. and that it might even help promote copycat behavior.
I understand and sympathize with the distress of the families .. but the idea that this sort of thing should be withheld by a Big Brother Media disturbs me. I don't trust anyone to decide whether I'm grownup enough to see this kind of stuff.
The video has probably devastated Cho's parents just as much as the parents of the dead students. Everyone in this whole tragedy was a victim of one kind or another.
Individuals should make their own decisions about whether or not to look at it. We really don't want to start down the path of the media withholding genuine news just because some people might find it "disturbing" .. do we?
Some people think this is just the latest in political correctness .. that the video is a key part of helping us understand one of the biggest news stories of the year. If we're all going to discuss it endlessly -- and it looks like we are -- we ought to do it with as many facts as we can get.
Other people say Oh yeah? What are we going to understand? That he was crazy? That he was angry? Guess what, we figured that out from the fact that he killed 32 people.
Besides, I bet the same people who are yelling the loudest right now would be yelling even louder if investigators announced the existence of the video and pictures but then refused to allow anyone to see them. Right?
Sometimes the media confuse news and sensationalism.
Maybe the problem isn’t that NBC showed the video, but that they showed it over and over and over and over. The mainstream media today seem to be obsessed with taking 10 minutes worth of news and recycling it 100 times a day. They don't seem to be able to cover two stories simultaneously .. or even two different aspects of the same story.
I agree that we should be able to see the video .. but the repetitive 24 hours a day exploitation of it bothers me. There's a difference between disclosing it as news and running it relentlessly, shamelessly like some kind of snuff film.
Some complain that the video glorifies Cho, makes him some kind of perverse celebrity .. that running it constantly makes him larger than life. That can't be a good thing. That's what he wanted, after all, so it isn't even a sane thing. It might send a message to any psychopath with a gun and a video cam that if they do kill someone they can send NBC a video and become famous.
So .. no to censorship .. yes to moderation and treating it somberly as news, not entertainment sensationalism.
People want to watch this stuff, I don't care what they say ...
Another thing that disturbs me is that Cho was so obviously psychotic .. watching this very sick man rant is a bit too voyeuristic.
It's a crying shame he couldn't have just taken himself out and let all those people live.
And about it helping promote copycat behavior -- Cho did mention Kyle and Eric of Columbine. It's true that this stuff feeds on itself. Look at all the copycat news stories that sprang up yesterday after they aired the video .. several schools were shut down.
Then again .. what about the most famous televised snuff film of all time, the Zapruder film of JFK being shot? Wasn't that important enough to be seen by everyone? Did we have a spate of presidential assassins after it was aired?
Ah well .. the repetitive screening of Cho's video will soon fade. Maybe the protests against showing it is just displaced anger and frustration over the situation itself.
