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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 4/19/2007 11:55:17 AM
Title: "Reckless" NBC News
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From MATTHEW FELLING: Yet again a media outlet has decided to become a de facto publicist for a terrorist -- in this case, a domestic one.

NBC's decision to run Cho Seung Hui's manifesto-slash-rant is, in a word, wrong. Other words that come to mind? Of those I can print, "reckless" and "irresponsible" and "dangerous" rank high.

A few thoughts:

* Newspapers in the midwest agreed to push high school shootings off the front page and inside the paper, so as to not incite copycats. By giving a sick young man the opportunity on national TV to compare himself to "Jesus Christ" and hold himself up as a role model for twenty-something angst, the carrot of National Icon has been dangled before other afflicted youth who need psychological attention.

* The unabomber precedent is weak. The unabomber made a demand that his manifesto appear in newspapers, or else he would strike again. In Cho's case, there is no similiar Sword of Damocles dangling over Steve Capus.

* If the assailant in question were a member of Al Qaeda, or someone who had assassinated a political figure -- would we be as comfortable airing "The Gunman: His Side Of The Story?"

* Many academics and journalists agree that terrorism is directed more at the audience than the victims themselves. Didn't NBC play directly into his hands by running his profane soliloquy? What capital J Journalistic purpose does this living-room fearmongering serve?

* But various tactics could have been used to weaken the shock value of the raw video. Use still photo shots, perhaps. Or merely recount the words and transcribe them, rather than running his paranoid speech with a few curseword-induced pixelations and bleeps.

* Not that victims and their families should assume the roles of arbiters, but given the fact that NBC had this video exclusively -- as far as we know -- couldn't they have allowed for a mourning period before airing Cho Sueng Hui's "multimedia manifesto" and still gotten the ratings they lust after? [Permalink]

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