This ain't news

As just about everyone with access to a computer, television, radio or newspaper knows by now Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News videos and photos of himself spouting his disturbing rants & posing with this weapons before going on his killing spree. Instead of simply reporting to the public that they received this from the twisted murderous f*ck and turning over copies to the police, they proceeded to pollute the airwaves showing the video to us all, printing his manifesto for us to read. This isn't news, and its not appropriate. Now the images are blanketing news outlets all over, I can't even open my Yahoo home page without a photo of that jackhole pointing a gun at me appearing on the screen. Real great, I'm sure that's helping in the healing for all the families involved.

I mean the video and manifesto weren't vital to the story in all honesty. We didn't need to add more evidence to confirm that this monster was beyond disturbed. What benefit was there to be had from giving air to his mad rants and ravings. Did it give deeper understanding, not really. It'd already been established from what was reported that this kid, felt somewhat wronged by his peers who were of higher income brackets. However his victims, were young and old, students and faculty, of all races that don't even match his perceived enemies that made his life hell. He was basically angry at the world and his history show a track record of mental instability. What more does showing his final video and writings accomplish, what information does it give us that we didn't have or needed to know.

NBC said it showed "restraint" by showing only 6 minutes of the video in hourly intervals on their 24 hour news network, MSNBC. Their response has been something to the tune, of the decision wasn't taken lightly and they think airing the materials would help the nation in trying to understand why this occurred. What a load of crap. They saw EXCLUSIVE, a big scope literally mailed to them and they wanted to get it out there. They just had the sense and forethought to know that maybe holding back a bit on getting it out there would be good damage control from the obvious fall out for air this crap. What they failed to realize that while they may limit how often its shown on their network, once it was released, every other news network big and small, local, national and international recorded and has started showing it on their networks providing the exact continuous loop of video that NBC said they wanted to avoid. It's disappointing how often the major news networks meet the expectations I have of them by continuing to let the public down preferring to go for sensationalism, tasteless, and cheap in their quest for ratings.