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Media
Criticized for Airing Virginia Tech Gunman Video |
Posted:
04.25.07
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NBC's decision to broadcast images and video of the Virginia
Tech gunman raised questions about how the media cover fast-breaking
news and the consequences of airing a killer's tirade.
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 During
events such as 1999's Columbine High School killings, the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane
Katrina, news executives have to make quick and often difficult
editorial decisions about airing graphic or disturbing video.
The April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg,
Va., where an undergraduate student killed 32 people before killing
himself, became one such story where news people are facing questions
for decisions they made.
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Consumers
turn to the Web |
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The story quickly became one of the biggest U.S. media events
since the Sept. 11 attacks, with viewers turning to television
and, like never before, to the Web.
"We've gotten to a point where, when there's an enormous
breaking-news story, the first place most people turn is not to
their TV but to their computer," MSNBC general manager Dan
Abrams told Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
Between Sunday and Monday, the day of the shooting -- as print-media
site traffic remained flat -- broadcast television Web site traffic
rose by 87 percent, according to online research company Hitwise.
CNN.com reported triple the number of visitors due in part to
videos submitted by eyewitnesses like Virginia Tech student Jamal
Albarghouti, whose cell phone captured the sounds of gunfire as
police officers approached the site of the second set of shootings.
 Despite
these technological developments, it was a decision made by a
television network that has drawn the most questions and criticism.
On April 18 -- two days after the shootings -- NBC announced
that it had received a package containing hate-filled, rambling
writing, photos of the killer gripping various weapons and a DVD
containing 28 video clips.
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NBC's decision
to air the video |
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After notifying police, NBC aired parts of the multimedia manifesto
of Seung-Hui Cho, the 23-year-old Virginia Tech shooter, on its
evening news program, "Nightly News," earning it high
ratings.
"Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams said on his video
blog, "I don't know of a reputable news organization in this
country that, upon receipt of that package, would have ... slipped
it in a drawer and not shared its contents. It is beyond disturbing.
It is beyond horrifying. It is also news, and news is our role,
however unpleasant the stories are at times."
Every other major U.S. television news outlet followed, validating
NBC's decision to air the tape, but with similar stated reservations.
 CBS
"Early Show" anchor Harry Smith told the Associated
Press, "I felt manipulated by the fact [Cho] was getting
exactly what he wanted. We could have used the tape more discreetly."
Deviating from its American counterparts' decisions, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation's chose not to show any of the video.
Its news chief, Tony Burman, called the airing of the video by
American broadcasters a "mistake," warning it could
lead to copycat killings.
After 1999's Columbine killing, police held back videotapes it
had found of the teenage killers firing the weapons they would
later use to kill their classmates for four years -- an attempt
to prevent copycat killings. They continue to withhold the most
graphic videos that include security camera footage from inside
the school.
In 1995, a man, known as the Unabomber, who killed three and
wounded 23 others with bombs sent through the mail, threatened
continued violence unless the New York Times and Washington Post
published his manifesto.
After the FBI asked the two newspapers to publish the long, rambling
anti-technology paper, they complied. The brother of Theodore
Kaczynski then saw the manifesto and helped direct authorities
to his brother, who was arrested and convicted of the attacks.
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Backlash
against the video |
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Late Wednesday evening, NBC said it would restrict airing of
Cho's video. By Thursday, major news outlets -- ABC, CBS, Fox
-- also decided to stop or limit broadcast of the video and images.
 But
many critics said the damage already had been done. The rapid
dissemination of Cho's images and video -- in the media but also
on Web sites such as YouTube -- created a backlash: Family members
of victims cancelled appearances on NBC's "Today" program
in protest as MSNBC's message board received a flood of criticism
charging NBC News with going too far.
"I am appalled though that the news stations/newspapers
are allowing the gunman to get his last hoorah by putting his
face all over the news," a person wrote on MSNBC's message
board.
In the end, NBC aired about 15 minutes of the 25 minutes of Cho's
video.
Al Tompkins, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, told
the L.A. Times it would have been easy for NBC not to air the
video.
"People would have said, 'Good for you.' But that doesn't
illuminate us. That doesn't enlighten us. That only protects us.
And the job of the journalist is not to protect us from the truth;
it's to tell us the truth, no matter how repugnant it is,"
Tompkins said.
Kerry Redican, president of the Virginia Tech Faculty Senate,
said he approved of the NBC decision to air the material. "People
are trying to make some sense of this. This showed the whole thing
was really planned out," he said, according to a Howard Kurtz
column in the Washington Post.
--Compiled
by Adnaan Wasey for NewsHour Extra
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American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
