The threat of the copycat killer...

Little Raven

Little Raven

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Yesterday, MSNBC received a package from Cho Seung-Hui, the young man responsible for the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. He apparently mailed the package in the two hours between the initial dormitory shooting and the final assault on the engineering building. There's not really any surprises...just photos of him posing with his guns, a rambling, borderline incoherent manifesto, and some Quicktime movies.

They did what any news organization in their right mind would do: Put it on the air. Not all of it, mind you....but a good portion. They'll leak the rest out slowly over the next week or so. It's a rating bonanza...people can't help but be fascinated.

However, NBC has faced criticism over this decision. Some people fear that the material will glamorize Cho and prompt other troubled youths to emulate him. By releasing this material, they argue, NBC is threatening to undermine public safety in the pursuit of ratings. A counter-argument is that the public benefits from this kind of knowledge, in that it helps the public recognize future Chos’ before they go off the edge.

What do you think? Do media companies best serve the public by releasing or withholding information in this case? And does their obligation to ‘the public’ override their obligation to their shareholders? Is legislation required?
 
in Brit the pictures of his poses are plastered all over todays papers...
 
I don't trust NBC. First they said that the parcel arrived later than it should because he wrote the wrong ZIP code, and that they call the cops immediately without looking too much at the stuff inside. It seems now that they are releasing the pics and videos in small doses to make more profit of it, which is not bad. The problem I see is that they might have lied, the parcel might have arrived on time, they went through it, they copied it and then they called the police saying that a parcel from the gunman just arrived. But that is just my speculation.
 
I have mixed feelings about publishing his materials. On one hand I don't like that he is being given the publicity he wanted, and yes, NBC is probably milking this for all the ratings they can get. But on the other hand, I think we need to take a good, close look at how we handle crazy people. This guy should not have been loose in society. Judging from what I have heard and read, just about everyone who came in prolonged contact with him over the past 2 years has quickly recognised him for a madman. He should have been locked in a padded cell a long time ago, and I think the fact that he wasn't is the greatest failure in this whole sad episode. We need to get better at identifiying and either treating or incarcerating these sorts of people, or things like this will just keep happening.
 
This is really the time when the commitment to the First Amendment comes into question.

If I was head of NBC News, I'd probably put a pretty heavy clamp on it - which is probably why I'm not head of NBC News.
 
Fox broadcasting will no longer air the pictures.

I say let it all out. What could it hhurt besides feelings. This kid sent all his ramblings on disc. So it would have only taken moments for NBC to copy while waiting for the FBI to show up. I can understand bleeding it out because you have to edit for the uppity American public and even for ratings but to shove it under the bed does no good. Lets just sweep it under and forget about it has never worked.
 
It's incredibly irresponsible of them to validate this type of behavior, and it'll embolden the next guy that can reasonably expect his video to air. But I don't hold it against NBC, I hold it against us voyeurs. If they weren't showing it on national broadcast, it'd find its way onto YouTube anyway. They is us.
 
If there's going to be copycats, they'll be copycats no matter how much info they have.
 
I am going to take a more optimistic view about potential copycat killers. Every time a copycat killer is killed we remove one more wacko from the gene pool.
 
FugitivSisyphus said:
I am going to take a more optimistic view about potential copycat killers. Every time a copycat killer is killed we remove one more wacko from the gene pool.
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yeah, but they remove people who aren't wacko in the process.
 
Perfection said:
yeah, but they remove people who aren't wacko in the process.
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Better they remove a few non wackos in the short term than many in the long term or have wackos producing more wacko children.
 
Perfection said:
Wow, that was in incredibly bad taste, even by my standards! :eek:
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What was? Wouldn't it have been great if Hitler decided to go on a shooting spree in the Jewish section of Berlin circa 1910. Think of the millions that would have been saved.
 
Perfection said:
This kid was not exactly Hitler.
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Still, society would have to deal with him some time or another. It was just unfortunate that he took so many down with him. Most psychos are unable to.
 
Perfection said:
I'm pretty sure we can identify people who may kill before they actually do...
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Now how do we do that in an acceptable manner? Oooh, good thread idea....
 
Perfection said:
I'm pretty sure we can identify people who may kill before they actually do...
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This idea was made into a movie. Minority Report. It was actually a really good movie.

In the end, though, they decided it was a bad idea to be locking people away for seeming like they might commit a crime.
 
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