Shame On NBC; Thank You For Possibly Spawning Copy-Cats
Unless you slept the day away yesterday, you know that NBC received a package from Cho Seung-Hui -- mailed the day of his rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. Before NBC turned the package contents over to the FBI, they made copies, and began airing the forty-three pictures and twenty-three Quicktime videos on their evening news casts. In record time other news outlets picked up on the story, and started following suit.
This morning, Police Superintendent Flaherty expressed disappointment in NBC's, and other outlets, decision to air the images and video:
Virginia state police superintendent Col. Steven Flaherty told reporters he was "disappointed" that news outlets around the world broadcast photos and a video manifesto compiled by the gunman.
Flaherty said that the material, while horrific and disturbing, gave authorities little information beyond what they had already collected.
"I'm sorry that you were all exposed to these images," Flaherty said.
I am sickened by NBC's decision to add to Mr. Cho's "fifteen minutes of fame." There was no reason, whatsoever, to air any of this. It gives no one any sort of special insight to Mr. Cho, or gives any sort of reason why he decided to snap and shoot his fellow students. Even investigators have said the package offers little insight into the questions that still remain about his decision to commit this heinous act:
Authorities sifting through the deranged ramblings and disturbing images of a Virginia college student who carried out the worst act of gun violence in the nation’s history concluded Thursday that the material, which was sent this week to NBC News, added little to their investigation.
Today we see that such images, such reporting from the media, may have contributed to this story, which has not hit the wires as of this writing:
(Hat-Tip: Captain Ed)
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday it has arrested a 14-year-old Bartram Trail High School student following threats the teen allegedly made in an e-mail to conduct a mass school shooting.
Sheriff’s office authorities said they were notified late Wednesday morning of the e-mail, which had been sent to a friend of the suspect.
A parent of the friend intercepted the e-mail and called the sheriff’s office and reported the alleged threat, deputies said. ...
According to authorities, the suspect, whose name will not be used because of his age, stated in the e-mail that he was going to top the record of 33 people killed in a school shooting, and went on to state that his goal was 100 victims.
"Once we received that information, our policies and procedure are to call the student in, and any other students, to follow the leads. If we feel that a search is necessary, we surely do that," said Bartram Trail High School Principal Brennan Asplen.
Deputies said the investigation revealed that the teen had made similar threats several weeks before that went unreported.
Thank you, NBC. Thank you for possibly spurning people like this kid on towards his own "fifteen minutes of infamy." Why is it that the media never thinks beyond the moment? I brought it up to Thomas yesterday afternoon when he was working on his update post for the massacre as to how long it took NBC to make the decision to air the images. I offered the answer to be about five minutes. Reeling from the Imus fallout of last week, NBC knew it had the scoop of the day; possibly the scoop of the week, and all because Mr. Cho chose them. It was irresponsible and reprehensible of NBC to even consider airing the manifesto sent to them.
The kid in Florida is not the only copy-cat that has popped up on the radar today. We live in Arizona -- Mesa, to be exact -- and we were greeted with this story this morning:
A student at Shepherd Junior High School in Mesa made threats Wednesday afternoon that he was planning to shoot other students and himself, police records show.
The 14-year-old male allegedly threatened that he would shoot fellow students and himself at the school on Friday, police said. Witnesses who heard the threat brought the information forward to school officials.
Again, thank you NBC for your blatant disregard for being a responsible news outlet. And the MSM wonders why it is failing miserably.
Marcie
This morning, Police Superintendent Flaherty expressed disappointment in NBC's, and other outlets, decision to air the images and video:
Virginia state police superintendent Col. Steven Flaherty told reporters he was "disappointed" that news outlets around the world broadcast photos and a video manifesto compiled by the gunman.
Flaherty said that the material, while horrific and disturbing, gave authorities little information beyond what they had already collected.
"I'm sorry that you were all exposed to these images," Flaherty said.
I am sickened by NBC's decision to add to Mr. Cho's "fifteen minutes of fame." There was no reason, whatsoever, to air any of this. It gives no one any sort of special insight to Mr. Cho, or gives any sort of reason why he decided to snap and shoot his fellow students. Even investigators have said the package offers little insight into the questions that still remain about his decision to commit this heinous act:
Authorities sifting through the deranged ramblings and disturbing images of a Virginia college student who carried out the worst act of gun violence in the nation’s history concluded Thursday that the material, which was sent this week to NBC News, added little to their investigation.
Today we see that such images, such reporting from the media, may have contributed to this story, which has not hit the wires as of this writing:
(Hat-Tip: Captain Ed)
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday it has arrested a 14-year-old Bartram Trail High School student following threats the teen allegedly made in an e-mail to conduct a mass school shooting.
Sheriff’s office authorities said they were notified late Wednesday morning of the e-mail, which had been sent to a friend of the suspect.
A parent of the friend intercepted the e-mail and called the sheriff’s office and reported the alleged threat, deputies said. ...
According to authorities, the suspect, whose name will not be used because of his age, stated in the e-mail that he was going to top the record of 33 people killed in a school shooting, and went on to state that his goal was 100 victims.
"Once we received that information, our policies and procedure are to call the student in, and any other students, to follow the leads. If we feel that a search is necessary, we surely do that," said Bartram Trail High School Principal Brennan Asplen.
Deputies said the investigation revealed that the teen had made similar threats several weeks before that went unreported.
Thank you, NBC. Thank you for possibly spurning people like this kid on towards his own "fifteen minutes of infamy." Why is it that the media never thinks beyond the moment? I brought it up to Thomas yesterday afternoon when he was working on his update post for the massacre as to how long it took NBC to make the decision to air the images. I offered the answer to be about five minutes. Reeling from the Imus fallout of last week, NBC knew it had the scoop of the day; possibly the scoop of the week, and all because Mr. Cho chose them. It was irresponsible and reprehensible of NBC to even consider airing the manifesto sent to them.
The kid in Florida is not the only copy-cat that has popped up on the radar today. We live in Arizona -- Mesa, to be exact -- and we were greeted with this story this morning:
A student at Shepherd Junior High School in Mesa made threats Wednesday afternoon that he was planning to shoot other students and himself, police records show.
The 14-year-old male allegedly threatened that he would shoot fellow students and himself at the school on Friday, police said. Witnesses who heard the threat brought the information forward to school officials.
Again, thank you NBC for your blatant disregard for being a responsible news outlet. And the MSM wonders why it is failing miserably.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 11:50 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, numb-nuts, can you document the connection between the two copy-cats and NBC's decision to air the Cho footage?
No. Cho did the shooting, the two teens threatened to copy the shooting, not the crazed manifesto.
Would the world be a better place if the press refused to show you anything disturbing?
I hear the newspapers in Havana print only good news. Is that what you want for America?
gnwag
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