NBC's Terrible Decision: VT Killer Video

saying that it existed was enough on its own. i was thoroughly shocked that they were actually showing clips of it, sound & all.....

"it's silly, no? when a rocketship explodes and man still wants to fly. some say man ain't happy truly, until man truly dies. o why?"
-Prince

Even at my young age it makes me shocked to see that they were actually showing the pictures of the killer posing with guns and the videos he sent them (obviously for fame). Not only that but ever since they have given this angry killer so much recognition the few emos and goths in my school have been threatening to do the same! It's frustrating that NBC couldn't fortell this.

You deserve 5 stars. This is all true: NBC should not have given the VT shooter what he wanted--the attention and glamour of a murderer. Whether or not he is dead is not the issue. He still got what he wanted. Isn't that a bit unfair to the victims and their families, NBC?

That's what I was thinking when I heard of the package. The FBI should not have allowed them to air it before they reviewed it, and then they would have had time to think of what they were going to do.

--I am nothing special, just the combined efforts of every
person I've ever met and every book I've ever read.

I truly agree that they shouldn't have aired it. However I think you are all forgetting that they have freedom of speech, and saying that the FBI (for instance) should not have allowed them to air it is wrong. I can imagine the amount of people that would have been upset if they hadn't been allowed to.

Still, if I had been in the position they were I would not have done it.

This always happens to me.

Anyways.

I think that they did exactally what they should have when they aired the video. Yes, they gave the kid what he wanted -- But like he's around to see it. Sure, other kids could download it as a "how to" or inspiration -- But look how many OTHER sources of inspiration and how-to are out there for those kids, that would serve their purpose far better than the kid's home-made suicide tape.

I think that by showing the tape, it shows what limits that some people get pushed to. While I do NOT think that the kid was justified, I think that people who tormented him, neglectd him, and estranged him from society should be feeling the guilt of blood on their hands. It's a tragedy that innocent people had to die. It's a damn shame, I admit. But people, adults and kids, need to be aware of the harm they are inflicting on other people when they are jackasses to them. It's not possible for me to know what button I may be pushing when I tease someone about their lazy eye --- What if their parent was abusive and jabbed something in their eye that made it that way? What if they have some terminal disease? Obviously I'm not sure if those two things can cause a lazy eye, but the technicallity of the statement is not the point.

I know that it's always the first instinct to look for someone to blame, and the kid was the one who did it, so blame him, slander him, etc. But you have to also have some sympathy for him, because he was a human being too. Like I said, not enough sympathy that you think what he did was justified, but enough sympathy to know that what he did was provoked.
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"So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!"

The fact that these tape are being aired is unjustifieable as you pretty much said in your blog briane. The fact that the murderer is getting so much media coverage could coax other students into doing the same thing to make sure that they are remembered. This is similar to the Columbine incident. The two murderers made videos of themselves modeling their weapons and making thier explosives. Pieces of these videos are now shown on a Columbine documentary on the History Channel which is on for anyone to see. The fact that these things are available makes it sickening to watch. It seems almost to commemorate the murderers instead of the people killed in the attacks. Nice blog.