Should NBC Have Aired The Cho Package?
CAPTAIN ED
In the two-hour spell between the two groups of murders at Virginia Tech Monday, the murderer packaged pictures, videos, and a typed manifesto produced over the previous week and sent them off to NBC in New York. With a return address name of "A. Ishmael", Seung-hui Cho mailed his legacy to the wrong address and incorrect zip code, delaying the delivery by a full day, but succeeded in placing it in the hands of an organization that earns its living by reporting information.
Should NBC have published this material? So far, the commentariat appears opposed to both the decision to publish the material and the manner in which it was handled. Mona Charen says that NBC is feeding the next monster:
"NBC is doing something extremely stupid by running those photos the Virginia Tech shooter sent them. Are they crazy? This will encourage every publicity seeking loser in the world to do something similar to get himself on TV. Foolish.
Stephen Spruiell, also at The Corner, grants that some of the package could get aired in a responsible manner, but believes that NBC hasn't thought it through long enough:
NBC News will reportedly air portions of a video it received from homicidal lunatic Cho Seung-Hui on its 6:30 p.m. broadcast, 15 minutes from now. I assume I share with many Americans a morbid curiosity about what's contained on that video. But NBC News is about to give Cho an audience of around 10 million people for his deranged rantings. What kind of message does this send to other isolated, disturbed and angry youths who entertain the same violent thoughts as Cho?
Ed Driscoll makes a good point when he points out that sports broadcasters will not show people who interrupt events by running onto a field or court during a game. Why, then, give Cho the posthumous satisfaction? He also says that NBC is blowing itin the way they used it for marketing:
The photos themselves are newsworthy, and should be released to the public. What I find discouraging is how they're used as part of the Webpage's graphic design, solely to build controversy and hits, to the MSNBC site.
Hot Air is ambivalent:
Spruiell thinks this is a bad call by NBC too. I think it's a close call, but I'm not sure I agree.
I disagree, for the most part, with the above sentiments. I agree with Stephen and Ed D that the manner in which NBC incorporated the photos into a graphics image for the story is in poor taste. I believe Stephen makes the point that the shot almost looks like a movie poster, and its use slides over the line from reporting to exploitation. I'd also criticize the manner in which NBC apparently decided to split its publication between the Nightly News program tonight and Today tomorrow. It looks like an obvious ploy for ratings, and it's rather unseemly, given the deadly circumstances of the story.
However, NBC was correct to report the contents of the package. In most circumstances, society is served better by the free dissemination of information, unless its release would put directly put lives in danger -- like, say, exposing national-security programs that had stopped terrorists from killing Americans. In this case, the crime has already been committed and the perpetrator is dead. Holding back the material would boost all sorts of rumors about Cho's involvement in any number of conspiracies, including radical Islam, that are already the subject of much speculation.
NBC made the right decision to go public, and to work with law enforcement to determine which material to release at the time, as they apparently did. They unfortunately overshadowed that correct decision with the very incorrect decision on marketing the materials. They sensationalized material that absolutely required no such effort -- and degraded their credibility as a result.
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