It’s no secret in this age of instant information that when awful things happen, such as last week’s shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the media not only report the story, they often become the story.
Two days after Cho Seung-Hui murdered 32 people at the campus, NBC News received a package that included photographs of Cho posing with weapons and videos of his rambling, hate-filled rants against his perceived oppressors. NBC News executives claim they debated all day whether to air it.
They eventually released the material, and a statement from the company contends: “We believe it provides some answers to the critical question, ‘why did this man carry out these awful murders?’ 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.”
With all due respect to NBC News, that’s garbage. The only “answer” you arrive at after watching the material is that Cho was a lunatic, a fact already apparent from the massacre itself. The second justification, that other news organizations covered it as well, is just a weak version of the old “Everyone else did it, too” argument that never convinced my parents.
Now I’m not saying that NBC had no right to air it, I just wish they could be honest about why they did. Keith Olbermann hit on the true motivation on his MSNBC program when he asked an FBI profiler, “Is there anything … that will be of value, or does this become, to some degree, purely voyeuristic on the rest of our parts?” And that’s really it. The networks count on the general public finding the material fascinating even as it disgusts us.
People clearly have strong opinions on NBC’s actions. A poll on the ABC News website asks the question, “Airing Killer’s Tape — Too Much?” As of this writing there were more than 36,000 votes, with 66% answering, “The media are glorifying Cho, and the video opens up the door to copycats.” The site’s message boards are also loaded with negative responses. While far from scientific, these reactions do tend to reinforce the notion that the media often doesn’t give the public what it wants.
Why do they do it? Simple, they have too much airtime and too many pipes to fill with information. The need for the scoop drives the cable networks to air wall-to-wall coverage that reduces events to tidy programming blocks with foreboding titles and endless interviews with experts, who have no direct knowledge of the events, pontificating on everything from gun control to the effects of violent video games on America’s youth. And on and on it goes until the next tragedy takes its place.
Comments
Lori Lippitz Says:
April 24th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
A very perceptive and necessary commentary, thanks.
I think it comes down to this: A network who received this package would be stormed by “people’s right to know” people if they didn’t share at least part of it. In this country, folks bristle at the thought of being protected from things we shouldn’t see.
Of course, we don’t see the violence that goes on daily in Iraq…and no one is bristling. It’s a sort of selective bristling.
If I were an NBC exec, I would be thinking about the backlash I might get if I didn’t share with the public what was sent to me. The question of whether I was serving (as it were) at the pleasure of a homegrown terrorist might also occur to me, but the first argument would probably win out (as apparently it did).
I agree: they shouldn’t lie about it, like they did. These days, everyone resorts to spin when the truth would be just as serviceable.
J. Scott Anderson Says:
April 25th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Excellent article. Your conclusion regarding the need to keep 24-hour-a-day, wall-to-wall news services “full” is dead on. And, I believe is a reason that you will see a continuing decline such services as they are replaced by internet services that put more power in the hands of the consumer to find and filter what news they get.
In fact, my family is already in the mode and we find it liberating. We get news when we want it and when it is timely.
Felicia Says:
April 27th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I felt under attack by the news when they kept showing that kid pointing a gun at the camera over and over again.
They are more than willing to show that picture over and over, but photos of men and women who have died in Iraq that die are never shown on the news. They are simply, 3 troops died in a roadside bomb, etc. What a shame such a loser receives so much air time and people serving and dying for our country get no air time.
Leave a Comment