Posted on 04/19/2007 1:39:56 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
NBC News's decision to telecast portions of the video material it received Wednesday from Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, material that was disseminated by other print and electronic news divisions, provoked reaction that moved the news division to release an explanatory statement Thursday.
It did not quell negative reverberations, including the cancellation of appearances on NBC's "Today" show Thursday in protest of the decision made by NBC News. The network also imprinted the NBC News credit on everything released to other media from the package it was sent by Cho.
In one of the on-air moments of recognition that NBC News' decision was not a unanimous one internally, "Today" co-host Matt Lauer said Thursday morning that there were "some big differences of opinion right within this news division as to whether we should be airing this stuff at all."
"The Virginia Tech killer's death wish has come to pass," Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid said in a statement released Thursday. "NBC is playing into the cold dead hands of a mass murderer, exploiting his paranoid delusions for ratings and profit. This is exactly what he wanted."
However, Mr. Kincaid also said NBC News should make the entire contents available for "public inspection" on the Web.
The NBC News statement began with an acknowledgment that "the pain suffered by the Virginia Tech community, and indeed the entire country, is immeasurable.
"Upon receiving the materials from Cho Seung-Hui, NBC News took careful consideration in determining how the information should be distributed. We did not rush the material onto air, but instead consulted with local authorities, who have since publicly acknowledged our appropriate handling of the matter," the NBC statement continued. "Beginning this morning, we have limited our usage of the video across NBC News, including MSNBC, to no more than 10 percent of our airtime.
"Our Standards & Policies chief reviewed all material before it was released. One of our most experienced correspondents, [Justice Department reporter] Pete Williams, handled the reporting. We believe it provides some answers to the critical question, 'Why did this man carry out these awful murders?'" the statement continued.
"The decision to run this video was reached by virtually every news organization in the world, as evidenced by coverage on television, on Web sites and in newspapers. We have covered this story—and our unique role in it—with extreme sensitivity, underscored by our devoted efforts to remember and honor the victims and heroes of this tragic incident. We are committed to nothing less."
What do you think about NBC News?s decision? Leave your comments and join the discussion here.
Is it? I’m glad, I just typed what he said. :0)
You said — “I agree. Most of these morons who call themselves journalists aren’t even cut out for the job title they hold. I saw the video once, and I could barely understand what the hell he was saying.”
I’ll repeat my answer that I already gave, to the other poster. I guess you missed it....
“I really don’t care what the journalists say, in the way of “analysis” — but only in the way of factual information. If they want to analyze, well I tell them to “have at it” — but I don’t have to listen, if I don’t want to. I only want the raw facts and whatever pertains to that. The rest of what they say, well..., I’ll take under advisement.”
.
So, as I said — release it all. Put it all out, no censoring, no bleeping, no fuzzing of the lips and so on. Put it out so we can do as Fox News says — “You decide”.
Therefore let the public decide what the information means and what the shooter means by what he said. Those who don’t want to see it, simply don’t go to the web site. Those who do want to see it, they can click on the web site and get the *full information*. It’s that simple.
Regards,
Star Traveler
The people decided. Airing it over and over and over in this day and age of TIVO and 24/7 cable news serves no purpose, when there are other news stories going on in this world to cover.
I agree, there’s some Freepers that want to hide their heads in the sand about these attitudes.
See ya’,
Ed
Really? Do you remember what the thread was?
I suspect this guy has TONS of writing on the internet, because he spent so much time logging on and feverishly typing things.
I watched his video and I saw the same sort of hate that I see from PETA, ELF, Critical Mass and the anarchists here in the Northwest that vandalize buildings.
Ed
Psychiatrists, neurologists and others have a very good handle on the whole matter.
"Self defense or war are the only sane reasons to kill that many."
No. Sanity has an element of moral worth applied to it. War itself is a violent clash of wills. There is no inherent morality in war, nor can it be called a sane action, without referencing a moral code. The only moral justification to war, is to protect freedom. Note that self defence is the defence of ones self, which is their life, sovereignty of will and all that they hold by virtue of that. Self is the life and identity of the individual. There is no moral justification to impose one's will on another, other than to protect one's own self, and those of others. Freedom means, folks can do as they choose, without interference from others, so long as they themselves don't attempt to impose their will on others.
Freedom is a gift folks extend to one another. Once folks no longer do that, the self of more, or less folks is destroyed to some extent. War just to establish authority over the wills of others, is immoral and thus insane. An example of that kind of war would be communists vs jihadis. One trying to dominate the other's will. In contrast, the American Revolution and WWII were fights that consisted of those attempting to establish freedom vs those that desired to maintain, or expand some authoritarian scheme. The sanity and moral worth was to be found in those that fought for freedom. Same in Iraq and Afghanistan.
" And the mind develops the triggers based on past experience, imagination and external input."
Yes, except in the case of mental disease, the mind doesn't work. In the case of mental disease, those priors become less important with the severity of the disease, because brain function is faulty. Everything becomes jumbled, because the physical machinery of the mind, that should provide for rational function, is no longer capable of logic more, or less. In a normally functioning mind, a person can make errors in logic, that pile up, but in this case things pile up, because they're more, or less incapable of reason.
THe other element of the mind that's important here is emotion. Normally rational thought and reponse to perception, should give rise to appropriate emotion. Emotion should not drive thoughts, so that they interfere with the rational function of mind. When emotions interfere, rational capacity is diminished, and has the same effect as a physically malfunctioning mind. There may even be a physical basis for emotions to interfere with rational capacity, as in some depressions.
In Cho's case, things were very bad. W/o pro help, Cho was destined to go off the deep end at some point and in some way. His capacity for rational function was bad, so that unrelated thoughts were jumbled together and had no logical meaning. Emotionally he was severely anguished, because of that. As his condition worsened, that gave rise to intensified anger. Both the anguish and anger just reduced the rational capacity, that much more.
"All of which is subject to misinterpretation."
Cho couldn't interpret anything at this point, because their was no machinery, or coherent "database" to work with. He's been gradually losing it for a long time and never got any help. It doesn't matter what his past was w/o the pro help.
"This is a man accused of taking images of womens legs with his cell phone camera."
That's just his sex drive. He was incapable of having any relationship, because he could not relate to people. He had no friends, and could never get a girl friend. Not imagery-sex drive, nothing more. He had no conception of relationship, only a drive that he didn't really have a clue what it was about.
You said — “The people decided.”
Well, I still don’t have all the information, so I haven’t decided yet. There is not a full release, at this point in time. So, when I say “You decide” — you have to have that full release available somewhere to be able to decide.
That means, that those who don’t want to look, they decide — they don’t go there. Those who want to look, they decide — they go to it and examine it. And for those who do go there — they also “decide” further — by making their own determinations of what it means.
So, at this point in time, I don’t see that anyone has been able to decide, except one group — the group who wants to stick their heads in the sand. They can do that at any time, and they’ve exercised that ability already....
Regards,
Star Traveler
You said — “I suspect this guy has TONS of writing on the internet, because he spent so much time logging on and feverishly typing things.”
You know..., it’s interesting that one of the profilers (or someone from the authorities) said that this guy, Cho, fit the profile for these kinds of things (this mass shooting) — except for one thing. They said that these guys usually brag ahead of time about this stuff (I suppose either people don’t believe them, or just get away from them...).
Now, they said that, so far, they had not found that Cho did this. So, he fit the profile for everything except the bragging “ahead of time”. But, they also said that they were continuing to look around for some evidence of this. So far, they haven’t found anything.
So, it will be interesting to see how that turns out.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Yes, it was. Thank you. I don’t think about these things much, and there’s CRS to deal with. The intracacies and developmnent all fell into place with that statement. I just remembered a report that he had an imaginary g/f called “jelly” I think it was. Sad...
This is what I don't understand...decide what? Had this guy been part of an organized political or social movement that endorsed or promoted his actions, then yes, that would have value. It would provide context, it would provide information necessary to the populace to face an ongoing threat.
As it is now, the raw facts you refer to are nothing but the face of mental illness and insanity. We are not better off or better informed for having seen the videos and pictures.
>> “Can anyone say “tampering with evidence”?”
>
> I said on several posts. I’m glad I you have said the same. There may have been some fingerprints or other evidence that indicates someone else was involved. NBC contaiminated the evidence when they got their greasy little fingers all over it trying to make copies. NBC may have committed a crime in their desire for ratings...
Too right! I hope the authorities follow up on this line of enquiry. That package was EVIDENCE. And it should have been opened in a POLICE LAB.
There is nothing outside of satisfying voyeuristic curiosity that would merit NBC or anybody else releasing the footage, in full or in part, before the authorities had finished with it.
NBC should have done the responsible thing and handed it over immediately to the police, unopened.
And now that we’ve all seen parts of the tape, we are still none the wiser. We’ve learned nothing new that we didn’t already know (he was a nut, a loony-toon), and even if we had, what good is achieved thereby?
Society has behaved exactly as NBC wanted. Bad behavior has been rewarded.
You said — “As it is now, the raw facts you refer to are nothing but the face of mental illness and insanity. We are not better off or better informed for having seen the videos and pictures.”
Well, let’s start with that one word — “we”. That’s a good place to start with — when considering “You decide”.
If it’s “you” — then you decide whether you’re going to examine anything any further or not. If you don’t want to go to a web site and look at anything, you simply don’t. You’ve decided.
However, if you use the word “we” — it seems that it’s not “You decide” but now it’s become “I decide for you”. That’s not what I said.
What I said — saying it perhaps more plainly, is — “You decide, I decide, my neighbor decides, my friend decides, my relative decides...” and so on. That’s what I’m talking about.
So, get the web site up, get all the information out there and — “You decide”...
Regards,
Star Traveler
P.S. — By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of FReepers complaining about that right now — not being allowed to see all the evidence. And this is said (by those FReepers) as evidence that the authorities are trying to cover up something.
By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of FReepers complaining about that right now — not being allowed to see all the evidence. And this is said (by those FReepers) as evidence that the authorities are trying to cover up something.
Not being allowed? Is there some right to evidence in an ongoing investigation?
So there have been no Crusades and no Jihads ?
War just to establish authority over the wills of others, is immoral and thus insane.
I agree. That is why Japan and Europe are free. The US is not immoral and not insane.
As his condition worsened, that gave rise to intensified anger. Both the anguish and anger just reduced the rational capacity, that much more.
But his roommate thought he was a shy and introverted individual. How did he conceal this 'intensified anger' ?
Cho couldn't interpret anything at this point, because their was no machinery, or coherent "database" to work with. He's been gradually losing it for a long time and never got any help. It doesn't matter what his past was w/o the pro help.
I thought he was treated on an out patient basis.
Psychiatrists, neurologists and others have a very good handle on the whole matter.
Unfortunately, not enough of a handle to have prevented this tragic event.
He agreed just long enough to have the case dropped. No one followed up.
It was up to the folks that had contact with him to do what should have been done. No one around him cared enough, or knew what to do. The 2 women and the school services should have pursued the matter with the DA causing the judge should have reviewed his progress. The State of VA should sent their court records, regarding fed firearm disqualifications to the DOJ to enter into the NICS.
You said — “Is your point that every person should have the option of deciding to watch?”
Yeah, the idea of “You decide” is that each person gets to decide for themselves. Thus, put it all up on a web site, and then each person decides to go there or not.
.
You also said — “Not being allowed? Is there some right to evidence in an ongoing investigation?”
I understand that much about it. But, I was just pointing out that I’ve seen many, many FReepers complaining all along about information being witheld, thus meaning there’s a coverup. Just repeating what I’ve been reading here on Free Republic...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Well, that was more simply put but not more compelling. There isn't any established need to know or any collective interest that would be threatened if it were not known. On the other hand, there is a risk that it will inspire others, that it will be analyzed as a manifesto (as labeled) instead of the rantings of mental illness and that it will bring more pain to those who have a vested interest in the tragedy that followed.
We will just disagree I guess.
You said — “Well, that was more simply put but not more compelling. There isn’t any established need to know or any collective interest that would be threatened if it were not known.”
There’s probably more than 90% of the news and information (maybe even 95%) that it could be said that there “isn’t any established need to know” — or — “any collective interest that would be threatened” — if it were not known.
I see you’re one of those “big brother knows best” types (namely government and authorities). That sounds *much more* like the Democrats and “we’ll take care of you and spoon feed you the information we think you need.”
Yeah..., right..., sure... What a bunch of horse-shi’ite.
Sorry, the public has the right to all the information — all of it. Then *we* (each individually) *decide* whether it’s relevant to us or not. And *not* the media, not the government, not a neighbor, not the Democrats and not any of the other legislators.
.
You said — “On the other hand, there is a risk that it will inspire others, that it will be analyzed as a manifesto (as labeled) instead of the rantings of mental illness and that it will bring more pain to those who have a vested interest in the tragedy that followed.”
Oh, I see you’ve been taking cues from the Democrats and their “benevolent attitude” towards the poor little mindless beasties.... the public...
Sorry, that stuff gets on the news, the people hear about it, the public has the right to know — all of it. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it’s going to remain.
Just for an example of how you can’t even trust the press or the government and/or the authorities to give you all the information — *unless* you see it *firsthand* and *yourself* — just see the following.
And I know you will not have seen this information from the authorities or the newspapers or the other media. And this is an example of *how* exposing this information to the public — will allow — the public to examine it and decide for themselves what it means...
Have you heard that Cho might have been a Neo-Nazi — or perhaps a Neo-Nazi “in the making”? I don’t think so. I’ve read the news and looked at the television — and haven’t seen that yet. And I haven’t heard the authorities saying it. Yet, he gave the indications of it.
“From Address” on Package sent to NBC from Cho
A. Ismail
88 Revol
Blacksburg, VA
.
“88” — used as a greeting or a closing by Neo-Nazis (in e-mails or handles). Means 8th letter of alphabet (”H”); double 8’s mean “Heil Hitler”
“Revol” — revers of “lover”; or could mean “revolution”
Hence “Heil Hitler lover” [Hitler lover]; possible “Heil Hitler revolution”
.
Significance of 88 from Anti-Defamation League
http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/numbers_88.asp
.
On this thread, the Neo-Nazis, there, are commenting on the fact that the press has *not yet* picked up the meaning of “88” or “Revol”
88 Thread (from Stormfront forum, Neo-Nazi forum)
http://tinyurl.com/2bgue3
Some comments from that thread...
“Who saw the fake return address Cho put on the NBC letter? It was a little inside joke Hitler reference, probably as a nod to Columbine and the proximity of the date.”
“Most people of course don’t know what 88 means. Do we really want the media to play the Hitler angle on this one?”
“Thats what I was thinking! Don’t need to give the media ammunition!”
“Good point. At least they’ll have a hard time tying him to White Supremacists like they did by lying about Klebold and Harris.”
“Ismail ax- I think this means “Ax of Ishmael”. You know, Abraham’s bastard child from Hagar. The illigitimate son who spawned the Arabs, Islam, etc...”
Well, even though the press did say something on the Ismail bit — they have *not* picked up on the *Hitler* reference. But, I suppose, if the press reads FReeprs, they may soon pick up on that...
Regards,
Star Traveler
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