We now know what Cho Seung-Hui was doing between shootings at Virginia Tech. Hew was in his dorm room preparing to send a despicable package of videos and other ramblings to NBC. After turning over the originals to authorities, the brain trust at NBC decided the rantings were compelling enough to repeatedly show viewers.
A case can be made for showing this trash once, maybe twice. But after that, a network is gratuitously exploiting tragedy. I'm not arguing NBC News should pull the video from its Web site, as Fox News Channel did today. But NBC needs to think more critically about the consequences of its decisions.
Update: 5:41 p.m. As wrong as NBC was to show the video multiple times, newspapers that published still photos of the madman did their readers a service. They most certainly have received flak, but doing so provided a clear picture of just how psychopathic Cho Seung-Hui was. I like what the San Antonio Express-News did with its front page. It's difficult to look at for too long, but that's the point.
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