The killer sends a package to NBC news containing video, and NBC News AIRS some of it?
Tucker Carlson called it pornography. Figuratively, but he’s right.
I watched it, but I shouldn’t have been able to. They shouldn’t have broadcast it. It’s just going to encourage other potential killers/narcissists. Commit mass murder and send your video to the national news and you’ll get a nationwide platform!
It’s hard to satirize reality when it does such a good job of satirizing itself.
Sick, sick, sick.
[Further thought: How is this any different from Fox potentially airing the O.J. Simpson interview? At least they had the decency (Fox? decency? yeah, I know) to reverse their decision to do so.]
I agree, it’s disgusting. I purposely have avoided watching any of the video, but it’s hard to not see the still pictures when you are online. Americans are obsessed with violence and everyone wants to see it and talk about it, but we should not give that kind of attention to such heinous acts and those that commit them. We should do more to help those suffering from mental illness and not treat it like a taboo subject.
Future Chos, Kaczynskis, and Columbines are not exactly without media resources already. American popular-culture is practically a clearing-house for any wannabe lone-wolf mass-murderer. The absence of aired maniacle diatribes, or a Times published violent Luddite manifesto doesn’t exactly leave them without places to turn for corrupting inspiration.
American culture is chalk full of potential mass-murder heroes, any hour of the day on TV, movies, books, webzines, etc.
When something like this happens, i’m often reminded of the stereotypical China neighbor-model: an aging party-member, often a grandmother, whose duty it is to “touch-base” with her local neighbors, each and every one, on a regular basis. If Americans made it their own duty to do the same, and to own the problems-n-needs of their neighbors in distress, then a tragedy like this would rarely, very rarely, ever happen.
This problem speaks to a macro problem with Americans’ neighbor-culture.
rob@egoz.org
“It’s just going to encourage other potential killers/narcissists.”
really? proof of causation rather than corrolation required, methinks. it’s an empty argument and you could have turned off the tv. what you’re talking about is censorship.
Actually, censorship would be if NBC had been compelled by outside forces to not air the footage. I think what the Tin Man was expressing was his desire that the powers that be within NBC had made the decision on their own to not air it. Perhaps he feels that actually seeing the tape was unnecessary in telling the story.