NBC Did the Country a Disservice

Howard Kurtz writes about all things media for the Washington Post, and he has a rather critical report on NBC's decision to make wide use of the Virginia Tech killer's video and photos:

In all the years I've been chronicling the media, I have rarely seen the tidal wave of resentment that has washed over television organizations that showed the now-infamous Cho video. In the minds of many Americans, this was a horribly offensive act, and no amount of explanation about the obligations of journalism is going to change that view.

There are certainly people who get mad when television airs those periodic Osama bin Laden tapes. There are those who think even a tough interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is giving "the enemy" a platform, or that Dan Rather shouldn't have sat down with Saddam on the eve of the Iraq war. But this is different. This is a lunatic who methodically planned mass murder and wanted to live in infamy.

I understand NBC's argument that the video and the manifesto provide a peek into the mind of a killer at a time when there's a hunger to understand what happened. But under the circumstances, I also understand why many people reject that argument.

There is other reaction to NBC's decision, as pointed out by Hugh Hewitt:

Tim Rutten: "[NBC's] statement is bovine excrement. Look, the only thing this does is to demonstrate that he was insane. Well, none of us had any doubt about that."

Mark Steyn: "NBC is fulfilling the killer’s last request. That’s disgusting. That’s disgusting, because in effect, you have colluded in this kind of show of slaughter that he’s concocted, and I think that’s disgusting for NBC."

James Lileks: "What they did was guarantee that the next one will film himself as he’s doing it. And then he’ll upload the video to NBC or some other news organization, and then they’re going to have to explain to themselves why they won’t show that."

John Podhoretz: "I don’t see how one can view their decision making or their choice as anything but strictly craven."

Mickey Kaus: "NBC is now the go-to site for serial killers who have videos."

As Kurtz points out, the biggest beneficiary of NBC's decision was probably Attorney General Alberto Gonzales whose Senate Judiciary Hearing was largely ignored by a media obsessed with the VT shooting. Sen. Leahy delayed the hearing from its planned Tuesday date because of the shooting (and because he wanted some media coverage), but he didn't move it far enough to get it back in the media spotlight.