Media Coverage
April 20th, 2007 at 8:35 am by CrankyRegarding giving the mass-murdering bastard Cho his platform by airing his videos on the news, NBC states:
Why is it that even if a decision to air questionable content is “agonized over”, the outcome is always the same – put it on?
With 100% predictibility, the news organizations will race to the sensationalistic bottom and then drag the news cycle on with endless analyses about whether the media has “gone too far”.
Questions of taste or appropriateness never enter the equation. It’s all about the ratings and the “if we don’t do it, they will” mentality.
So let me turn this question on you. If it didn’t get the ratings, networks and cable news stations would agonize much less and, with their newfound ethics, not air the trash.
If one network decided to announce that there has been enough coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy and they would only report when there is new information, how would you react?
Would you watch this station or flip over to a station that was airing the tapes? Did you want to see Cho’s video?
What are your thoughts?
UDPATE: Jonah Goldberg does a great job of analyzing the news cycle.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I’m interested in watching the tapes, although I haven’t, with intention. I have a curiosity about the abnormal human mind, but I also know that by watching all the cell phone videos of the shootings, and the Cho tapes, that I am supporting the media’s sick feeding frenzy.
As a parent, I would also be interested in seeing the basement tapes of Klebold and Harris, before my kids are of a high school age. Seeing stuff like that gives me more confidence in my decision to homeschool my kids until college.
All that said, I would like to have a media that updated me when new and pertinent information became available, and didn’t have all these crap special alerts.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:29 am
“Why is it that even if a decision to air questionable content is “agonized over”, the outcome is always the same – put it on?”
With one exception, of course. When there’s a possibility that the news organization might get blowed up for airing the “questionable” content!
April 20th, 2007 at 10:40 am
I stopped watching news on Tuesday knowing full well the media frenzy would exploit anything it could get its hands on. They have not disappointed. The downside is that one can only tolerate Star Wars and Alien so long before even Greta starts to sound tolerable.
The news cycle will turn by early next week and we’ll forget all about this tragedy. Oh sure, the pain and suffering of the families involved will continue, but the media won’t care about them anymore. Their useful and marketable shelf-life will have expired.
The next step is the politicization of gun control as an undercurrent to numerous narratives and its impact on the ’08 elections. If a family that has suffered loss can be paraded in front of a camera to advance the view that the 2nd Amendment need be curtailed, then that’s what we’ll see. Otherwise, Cho who? Never heard of it…
Besides, who would expect NBC/MSNBC to act responsibly? They haven’t been doing that for years.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:51 am
NBC faces backlash for airing VT gunman video…
Relatives of victims of the Virginia Tech shooting canceled plans to speak with NBC because they wer…
April 20th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Any network that had received this tape/photos would have blathered the same blather and then shown the tape. NBC is loaded with scumbags, but the rest of the media is no different. No need to vilify them individually, methinks.
The whole thing is nauseating. The media is giving this little murderous faggot (yeah, I said it) the attention he so craved. I only hope that he has an obscured view of it from his condo on the hot side of the River Styx.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I say show it. Show it all. Show all the beheadings, all the 9/11 footage, all the real life threats that are out there. Sanitizing real world threats/violence only aids in allowing all of the would be victims to feel a false sense of security. It’s way past time that the good folks in this country got the full monty (as it were) and got angry. It’s way past time the people take back their homes, blocks, communities/schools, cities, counties, states and yes eventually the entire nation. Show it all, show it on TV, show it in the schools, show it everywhere there is an audiance to witness. If we are too pussiefied to and must turn away, then I fear it is already to late. But then again, what the hell do I know?
April 20th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
All I know is whenever the mainstream media finds the bottom of the well of bad taste, they just keep on digging. Nothing will ever change. It’s like the streakers at the ball game that always manage to find their way on the field during the game.
April 20th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I’m not a what if person. But I can’t help but wonder how NBC would have handled this is Cho had survived. While the tapes, pictures, etc. aren’t particularly helpful in the investagation of a dead perp, they would have been valuable evidence in a criminal prosecution. Would NBC have given up the “big” story and ratings bump in the name of justice?