Tucked in the bottom of the latest news out of Blacksburg, about Cho Sueng-hui’s video that was mailed to NBC, is the statement that the network delayed releasing the video at the request of the police.
These sorts of requests are not common, but they are not unusual. We’ve had two in the past few months. Both involved requests by the WSPD to delay running mugshots of people arrested. In both cases, the police argued that they were still doing witness lineups and that running a photo could corrupt that process. Because of our community’s history of bad lineups with the Darryl Hunt case, we agreed to delay publication for a short period. Not ideal, but workable.
Although some law-enforcment officials have criticized NBC for airing the video, many of the victims apparently found the message strangely cathartic, in that it gave them an explanation of why Cho did what he did, that it wasn’t them. It was him.
Another view: One of my co-workers is dating a Korean woman, and he pointed me to these newspaper Web sites that show how this story is being covered in South Korea, where Cho and his family are from.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
I’d like to thank the Journal for resisting the urge to blanket the front page with a large image from said manifesto, and for making the center column article one with some purpose other than sensationalism.
That said, there seems to be a lot of criticism of NBC, not just officially but unofficially, for giving the gunman “the last word”. As of yet, I haven’t heard of any knowlege being gained from the package.
Back to the Journal…
You mentioned two times the Journal did comply with police requests. Has the Journal ever NOT complied? If so, what, if anything, happened as a result?
I’m not sure what to say or how I reaaly feel about NBC airing the video of this sad person. I just know that I chose to vote with my remote control about 2 minutes into the news last night. That to me is the ultimate weapon and the thing to do if you don’t like it or agree with the airing of it. No offense to NBC or other networks but I don’t need or want to view this stuff and don’t feel I will learn anything new from it. Right or wrong maybe it is my way of coping with this tragedy.
Post a comment
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.