media coverage...

For the past five days we’ve watched the terror that occurred at Virginia Tech. I’m not going to get into the emotional side of this horrible incident. My thoughts are about the media coverage. As a former journalist, as you would probably imagine, I think the tapes from the killer had to be shown publicly. As much as I know it probably hurt the victim’s families, I think those tapes were pertinent in getting a glimpse into Cho’s mind and answering that nagging question, “Why?” (I think the answer we all know now is he was crazy.)

Some say that NBC should have waited until later. But I think it wouldn’t have been any easier on the families to see tapes now versus later. I think NBC made the right decision in airing the tapes, but they should have done it in moderation. And other networks should have followed.

As they say pictures are worth a 1,000 words. That was exactly what went through my mind while flipping stations at 10 p.m. Wednesday night. All I saw on every station (including the Spanish-speaking channel) was Cho holding two guns. That was scary in itself. There was no doubt in my mind that the pictures are what set the victim’s families off. It would have made me mad too. It was in those pictures that most people could imagine Cho entering a classroom, looking just as he did in those pictures, shooting 30 students. You can’t help but ask yourself, “What would I do?”

I think networks should have aired those pictures in moderation, because it was the video and the pictures that were the most disturbing. Even airing just audio of it would have lessened the effect, because without those photos he sounds like a bumbling idiot.

On another note, I can’t help but feel for Cho’s parents and sister, who from what I read were the opposite of him. Some people won’t understand that they had nothing to do with the incident. Many will blame the family. I’m sure to some extent the family will blame themselves. What’s more sad is they are going to have to live with this for the rest of their lives. After they grieve and try to understand why he did what he did, they still have to live with the backlash.