Brian Williams and Steve Capus were on Oprah today doing damage control for NBC's highly questionable decision last week to air VT killer's video's and photos. http://www.oprah.com/...
Williams defended the decision based on the fact that it was good journalism, but maybe not good pubic relations. And Capus went on to say that they never discussed not showing the material, just how much of Cho's "multi-media packet" they would show. And there was the all the other networks did it defense. But where did the other networks get the images?
Sorry, but no sale.
Airing that material was unethical and destructive. Less than 60 hours after the shooting, the American public was bombarded with the voice and images of a mass murderer fulfilling the desires of that killer. NBC did exactly what Cho wanted by releasing his videos. But NBC "agonized" over the decision. They had "no choice" but to air the material. Sorry, NBC,you do not have my sympathy and you did have a choice.
However, Williams went on to say that his own family had to turn away from their TV as images of Cho flooded every channel (Wallpaper, they call it.),and that discussions inside the network led them to dramatically limit the images by Thursday morning. Oprah pressed Williams about the possibility that public outrage and criticism from VT victim's parents may have had something to do with the fact that they limited the video/photos and that those images have now all but disappeared.
It was wrong and NBC should not have shown and dispersed it.
There is the argument that one can just turn off the TV. Yes,but what happens if you are in TV flooded places like the airports, bars, gyms or at a University Library- yes many University Libraries now have media walls/installations? Also if you checked your hotmail e-mail account last Wednesday or Thursday and logged out...bam...VT killer posing with guns and hammer. What one needed to do on 4/18/07-4/19/07 was stay at home in bed under the covers to avoid the endless media wall of Cho's self-portaits/hate video mail.
Capus whined that the media has to show many disturbing images. But have the images ever come directly from a murder sent while his crime was in process and then show at his request? Do they have to fulfill the very wishes of a killer only days after his crime, before the bodies are buried? Did they have to, in a sense, prolong the agony Cho's assault showing nearly identical images to what the survivors saw?
They crossed the line plain and simple.
No amount of chatting with Oprah is going to remove the stench from Capus.
NBC, fire your president and apologize.