Second-Guessing On Use Of Cho Pictures
Were News Organizations Justified In Airing Shooter's Manifesto Photos?
Comments 
13
|
Page 1 of 2
NEW YORK, April 20, 2007 | by Judy Faber
E-Mail Story
Print Story
Sphere
Share
Moving On After Tragedy
Only On The Web: Bob Orr reports on the nearly complete investigation into gunman Cho Seung-Hui and the Virginia Tech community that is still grieving after the tragic campus shooting. | Share/Embed
Moving On After Tragedy (1:44)
Reflection On A Tragedy (3:09)
Campus Tries To Move On (2:53)
Related
Scenes from campus on the day of the shootings and as the Virginia Tech community mourns.
Profiles of the students and staff who lost their lives in the massacre at Virginia Tech
(AP) Did news judgment really compel NBC and other organizations to use the material Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui intended for his epitaph? Or was this a case where revulsion should have left them in a desk drawer?
They're tough questions for journalists, not made any easier by an apparent attempt by television news organizations to have it both ways when the heat was turned up.
"This is the classic ethical issue where there could be multiple right answers and multiple wrong answers," said Bob Steele, a senior journalism ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute in Florida.
NBC News was at the tip of all these issues when the package of photos, video files and written ramblings from Cho arrived in its mailroom Wednesday. Every other news organization faced the same questions when the material reached the public domain, and virtually all reached the same initial conclusion.
The pictures alone — 11 showed a gun pointed at a camera lens — were repulsive. Many who saw them viewed it as a second attack, an invitation to copycats and a fulfillment of Cho's demented wish for attention.
They sickened Peter Read, whose aspiring schoolteacher daughter Mary Karen was one of the 32 shot dead by Cho on Monday.
"I want to issue a direct personal plea, to all the major media," he told The Associated Press on Thursday. "For the love of God and our children, stop broadcasting those images and those words. Choose to focus on life and the love and the light that our children brought into the world and not on the darkness and the madness and the death."
"Use of the videos and pictures served no compelling purpose and only risked heightening public disgust toward journalists," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
NBC should have released transcripts of what Cho said, and maybe one still picture, and locked away the rest, he said.
Journalists say it's not for them to decide whether or not the pictures are unpleasant to see, only to judge whether they are newsworthy.
Continued
1
|
2
By David Bauder
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Back To Top
RSS
Former NFL Quarterback McNair KilledNashville Police Found McNair, Woman Shot to Death; Circumstances Unclear
U.S. Global Military Efforts
RSS
Day In Pictures
"Transformers" Triumph At The Box Office
Comments [ + Post Your Own ]
Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
I don't believe this for a second - "help the public"?? Get off the cross. This was sensationalism at it's worst. The general public was apalled and angry at this validation of a maniac. He got everything he wanted - and the media set the stage for another maniac to do the same.
So what's the diff ?
This cross-eyed CVhong was a murderous dog...he killed dozens of innocents.....it's news.
Run the photos of the carnage in the classrooms so the Republishit Party supporters can see what their gun lobby has made possible.
Maybe I feel some loyalty to CBS since I hang out here so much, but I do feel like NBC does bear some special responsibility in this instance, especially after having looked at the contents and heard the references to Columbine and knowing copycat incidents had started to crop up all over the country.
I did notice though that none of the news stations have been showing the photo of the NASA gunman and that the focus really hasn't been on the gunman - I don't know what the appropriate protocol ought to be now . . . like maybe once might be okay (?) I don't know though . . . maybe better to err on the side of caution (?) Or maybe it just hasn't been released yet (?)
It's shameful when journalistic fervor overrides basic humanity.
Understand something - please.
Our focus, as a society, needs to be on Victims and their rights, not on the criminals.
Tomorrow is the beginning of National Crime Victims Week. If you have a chance please attend a memorial service and spend some time educating yourselves about the victims of crime.
My high-school student daughter was murdered last year by an ex-boyfriend. He had just recently been released from a "boot camp" program after three months. He had committed three felonies.
Less than a month after his release he murdered my daughter with a shotgun and left her body in the woods.
If the judge that "slapped his wrist" had focused more on the victims of his crime rather than "going easy" on a criminal she would still be alive.
Jennifer Ann's Group
JenniferAnn.org
For all their high and mighty attitute, NBC again shows itself be what it is.
Please just say you are sorry and apologise to the country and the families. NBC , you are a sleezy outfit. Can't you do better ?
Why do you think this nut decided to send the tapes to NBC ?
What happen to ethics in journalism?
Pray for Peace, Joy, and Love. God Bless.