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April 19, 2007
Cho's Publicity Department
NBC News had a hard call to make. They received an envelope with an exclusive - video, pictures and writings from Cho Seung-Hui. Some of these videos were made right after he murdered Emily Hilscher and Ryan Clark and before he murdered 30 more.
It was an amazing exclusive. Something no other news station possessed. But airing it meant giving the killer exactly what he wanted - the attention he could not receive without resorting to mass murder. Attention he did not deserve.
But unfortunately, it was attention that Brian Williams was willing to give him. Pictures and portions of his video were aired on NBC News this evening. I think that was a mistake.
If I had to make the decision, I would have shown the video of him talking, but not included the audio. I would have shown some of the pictures, but not the ones of him actually aiming a gun at the camera. There are ways to handle an exclusive without giving the guy the attention he craved.
UPDATE - Allah's got the NBC News report and some pictures of Cho. It's disturbing stuff.
Posted by slublog at April 19, 2007 12:00 AM
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Comments
I'm not following your argument here. Frankly, once he shot himself the material only benefitted NBC, so why not run it?
Posted by: MainiacJoe at April 19, 2007 09:22 AM
Because it might show other disturbed loners like him that if you do something really bad, you too could end up on tv. I just wonder about the motivation factor.
Posted by: Slublog at April 19, 2007 10:42 AM