Virginia Tech Coverage

I thought maybe we learned something from Columbine but apparently not.

The evil coward that shot 32 students and teachers is getting his 15 minutes of fame.

His photo and troubled story are everywhere. CNN is even posting a link to two violent plays this loser wrote.

The problem is, there are other losers out there that take note. If I get a gun and shoot a bunch of people, I'll get the attention I so desperately want. Maybe my diary will go on CNN. People will know my name.

I know the public wants to know every detail of this pathetic person's life but these shootings need to stop. Giving the killers infamy only encourages future incidents.

We should publish no name. No photo. No life story. Give them nothing. No 15 minutes of infamy. Nothing. NOTHING.

Focus on the victims. Tell their story. Show their photos. Honor their memory by protecting future victims from this ever happening again.

Comments

  • 15 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Good point, Paul, but it's hard to stop news that sells. It's all about the money and will continue to be. Sleazy, gory sensationalism is what people will buy. You have Geraldo Rivera ready to sell it and the public ready to buy it. Where do you break the circle and to what degree do you censor? And with the information highways available today, just how do you?

    But again, good point.
  • The Amish could teach us a few things about handling tragedy.
  • >The Amish could teach us a few things about
    >handling tragedy.



    Yeah! You don't see Amish news crews and helicopters at the scene!

    ;)
  • This may sound cold, but I don't want to hear about the victims either. This morning I heard all about one of the wonderful students who was slaughtered by this kid. I am sure the world would have been better off with her in it. However, I am also sure there are other young men and women who have been murdered who also had alot to give the world. They were no less important to their families, yet we do not hear all about them.

    Killing someone to make ourselves feel better is terrible, whether you manage to take 1 or 30 out, and whether you take them out all at once or one at a time.

    Let's find another way of dealing with this tragedy besides sensationalizing it. Let's figure out what we can do when all the warning signs are there, as with this kid, and act on it. We don't need to hear about it on every news channel all day. We need to find a way to find and reach those people who think their personal pain or pleasure is more important than the lives of others.

    jmo

    Nae
  • The public has a right to hear the truth, but I agree that it doesn't need to be broadcast over and over and over again! The media's over attention to these issues make it all the worse.
  • I knew an EMT that said after an accident the EMT's got together and "talked it out". I saw Dr. Phil speak about the same need to talk, but this sensationalizing is just to compete with the networks and it doesn't seem to talk out just talk about. I don't see that as healing.
    I agree with Nae/Nae all life is important. If this would just wake us up to the need to end violence that is one thing but rather it just sells papers and networks.
  • Now we learn that this murderous coward sent NBC photos, video, and a rambling 1800 word "manifesto" which mentions the Columbine killers by name.

    Anyone still think that press coverage and instant noteriety isn't a major motivation for these sick, evil crimes?

    Why bother trying to gain attention by working hard and doing something with your life when you can get FAR more by buying a gun and killing innocent people.


  • Exactly. There seems to be a backlash now against the networks for airing this idiot's rant. Good Morning America interviewed a doctor who pleaded with them to stop this endless coverage.
    [url]http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/VATech/story?id=3056168&page=1[/url]

    I encourage everyone to contact the big news stations. Voice your concerns. I was so disgusted with them last night. They have nothing new to talk about. It's the same garbage over and over. Look at msnbc.com's home page. Front and center is this guy's picture aiming two guns!! It's almost ironic. These same "journalists" are the ones harping about this young generation. How they "don't get it", "it's all about me", "they're so coddled and spoiled". etc.
    However, I feel these students, along with the Rutgers team, have displayed a level of commen sense and maturity that clearly we don't have. These "news" stations couldn't wait to place blame, couldn't wait to get traumatized kids on TV, couldn't wait to talk about the mother they just saw collapse on the floor when she learned her only child had been killed. I wanted to jump through the TV and smack Nancy Grace two nights ago. Can't we have at least a few moments to digest what just happened? Process our feelings? Every troubled, impressionable teenager is reading this crap and looking at these photos thinking this guy is some kind of hero or that he is so cool. He deserves nothing. He made a choice, a premeditated choice I might add, to take as many lives as possible. Why? We'll never really know the answers. He is a coward and should not be glorified.
  • I'm not going to debate whether it should receive the coverage or not, but I think you're selling our kids short.
  • How? I just stated I think they are the ones with the maturity and common sense. I think the kids are the ones who have acted admirably. It's the "taking heads" on 24hr news channels that I have a problem with. I think they've lost sight of what news really is.
  • Sorry, I should have been clearer. I didn't mean the VT kids. I was referring to "Every troubled, impressionable teenager is reading this crap and looking at these photos thinking this guy is some kind of hero or that he is so cool."
  • OK, gotcha. I guess I said that because our community just lost an 18 yr old senior to suicide this week. I don't know the family personally or what this kid's issues were, but I worry about other troubled kids and what they see. It's just too much sensationalism in my opinion.

  • I definitely agree that the excessive coverage is sensationalistic, and distasteful. I just have issues with people like the psychologist quoted above. He's confusing "correlation" with "causation", and anyone with as much clinical experience as he probably has should be well aware of the difference.
  • People act on their motivations. This killer was clearly motivated by noteriety. He essentially created his own "press kit". In a perverse way, he improved upon Columbine. Lock the door so nobody escapes and create your own press so that your photo, rants, and ravings get 24 hour coverage.

    By putting this crap on the air, we are virtually guaranteeing it will happen again. I totally agree with HrinGA.

    Somewhere out there, some disaffected, angry young man is taking notes.

    This will happen again. There are just too many troubled people out there who desperately want the world to pay attention to them.

    The crime horrified me. The coverage has made me sick. I wont watch it anymore.
  • This morning on NBC they talked to an 'expert' about this and asked him if it airing it would make other kids do the same thing. The guy said that movies, tv, etc do motivate some to do so. Then he went on to look in the camera and state categorically that anyone who would do such a thing was a coward.

    The guy went on to say that this kid was rambling and obviously confused and didn't know what he was talking about, etc etc etc.

    Then one of the news achors asked if he thought Cho expected his 'news release' to be analyzed like this or just read. The guy said absolutely not. That Cho just expected his 15 minutes of fame and for someone to listen to him, yada yada yada.

    Was this conversation supposed to make us think the networks were forced to show us what they had and are doing their best not to cause any future outbreaks of violence? I think if any kid out there is messed up enough to do something like this, then he probably believed that Cho actually made sense.

    I am disgusted by all I see on tv and read in the news about this. They are tired of reporting on the war and anxious for any sensational story. I mean, now that Anna Nicole Smith is dead and her daughter's father revealed, what else can they talk about? This competition to get the news out first is the real problem. I see no solution, however, except to not watch. Unfortunately, the only one I can control enough to enforce that option is myself. Oh wait; if that were true then I wouldn't have watched this morning. It's truly a sad, sad world sometimes.

    Nae
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