ATTENTION NBC AFFILIATES !!!!!!

[Kenny Atkinson]

I know up here in Rhode Island there is talk that NBC Affitiate Anchors at WJAR should come out and say that they are disgusted with what NBC has decided to air and the manner in which they did of this physco path.

My suggestion. For a 48 hour period next week a bunch of NBC affiliates DON"T air any NBC news shows ( Today,NBC NIGHTLY NEWS etc.)as a protest in thier decision.

In place of these News shows air informercials or something you may have on a shelf.

Thoughts.............

 

[tothedj]

I think many television viewers are getting tired of our media dragging a story
for days, or even weeks, as in the case when Anna Nicole Smith passed several
weeks ago, the shootings at Virginia Tech was a tragedy, but NBC should have
never aired that package sent by the gunman, and i don't blame the victims
families for not appearing on the network's news programs, they have been
through enough in recent days, and need your prayers.

 

[oaktree]

And why the fascination with the parents of the innocent lives lost? Frankly, I'm glad they cancelled being on the Today show.

Why make it a newsy-feel-good feature that only exploits the very sad feelings of these people who have lost the greatest part of their lives?

How many times do we need to hear a "news reader" like Matt Lauer or his partner on NBC, or anyone else interviewed by Katie, Charlie, Diane, Paula, Larry, Tucker, etc. ask the same inane question, "We know how you must feel...but, for the record, just how DO you feel?"

As someone in the radio news business, I will absolutely puke if I ever hear that phrase again. "So...how do you feel?"

The concern and feelings of these parents, the heartwrenching feelings and visuals of the friends, "suite mates" and others, along with solemn piano bumper is getting a bit surreal ... and old.

I don't think the parents need to be exploited. They owe us nothing. They owe us no apology of how terrible this horrendous event was. We know that. And what would you expect any parent with such a loss to say? There are other tributes and memorials that could be permanently etched in memory.

After all ... this horrendous episode in our nation's history will lead, as it always does, to the next horrendous and, possibly, more terrifying episode.

We don't "pick" the news we "think" should be reported. We either watch, listen or read about it ... or, by choice, we don't.

That simple.

But exploiting with grief-stricken people, talking-head analysis ad nauseum and "personality" conjecture is uncalled for.

We shouldn't encourage editorializing the news by anchors, news-readers or reporters.

The above suggestion deserves, at minimal, very very careful thought.

 

[formeraa]

I think NBC did the right thing by airing a little of the killers words.

As a society, we did a terrible job with this guy. Now, we know that he acted strangely at least since MIDDLE SCHOOL. Where were the middle school and high school teachers in this? It's one thing to be shy and not speak much; it's a whole other universe to not say anything at all and to use weird voices when you do. I don't care if he was a straight "A" student. This was NOT normal behavior and should have been dealt with years ago.

Maybe, by showing portions of his demented videos, we can learn to speak up and possibly prevent something like this from happening. Kudos to Nikki Giovanni at VT for basically saying, "Get this maniac the h*ll out of my classroom or I'll quit!" It's too bad that the VT administrators didn't do much about it.

 

[sack]

formeraa, I agree. This guy was not "right" for a long time, but our society doesn't like to deal with anything like that because it makes us "uncomfortable". So we ignore it. Now the nut blows up, kills a bunch of innocent people and we act surprised. Then we get all upset because this guys words and pictures get on the news,,,, well,, the news isn't pretty,, its not supposed to be. Should we not show or teach anything about Nazi Germany and Hitler because it makes viewers "uncomfortable"? We need to stop expecting news to be "feel good entertainment". We have news to inform us about the world, and if its horrible news like the VA Tech massacre, then thats what it is.

 

[jkb]

The biggest question you have to ask is if Fox News or CNN would have run the tapes and the answer
YES YES YES

It's all about ratings and they lost this one thanks to the gunman himself.
For one of these networks to come out and say they wouldn't have is very bogus.

We wanted to show the world Anna Nicole's drug freezer a day after she died why wouldn't these other networks show the crazy gunman???

 

[BRNout]

Although I agree with you in theory, showing things like the Cho tape doesn't turn out well in practice. For one thing, it encourages copycats by elevating this creep into some sort of superstar. While most of us are disguisted by what we see, there is a lunatic fringe that find it "cool."

Secondly, it would be different if it was showed in measured doses. However, the media jumped on this tape and played it over and over and over and over again. They acted like kids with a new toy - as if they were revelling in it. That was the wrong way to handle this and showing it repeatedly just adds to the liklihood that the copycat thing WILL occur.

Furthermore, it was too soon - IMO - because the families of those killed had not even received the bodies of their loved ones yet. Again, this showed a lack of sensitivity to the horrible tragedy that they had just been through.

Another problem here is that the media is pretty 'selective' as to what should and should not be shown. For example, they almost never show the people that were leaping out of windows at the WTC on 9/11/01. That was a part of the horror of the day - however, the networks have (for years) sanitized 9-11 for your "protection". Even on that tragic day, the people hurtling out of the buildings was almost never shown. Yet, that was a direct and horrible symptom of the attack. It probably should have been seen by any voting adult. There are other examples of this selective self-censorship as well, though I will not drone on and on listing them here.

In short, the mainstream media is pretty hypocritical about this stuff. When graphic or controversial footage doesn't fit a certain political viewpoint, it is not shown. When it does, then we see it hundreds of times. In this case, the lack of self-regulation is clear.

I am not proposing some sort of government censorship here - just criticizing the media for their lack of self control and consideration for those involved in an appallingly tragic event. This probably would not have happened 20 years ago.

 

[network]

Thoughts.............

You don't want to know my thoughts on your post. They won't be very nice. I'll just say it further proves why so many people posting on this are on the sidelines. Oh wait, you had to have had to work in this industry to be on the sidelines. :

 

[radiofriend1]

that's the great thing about living in america-----we have choices

anybody who didn't want to see this whacko can simply turn the channel. nobody's forcing anybody to watch

what's REALLY hypocritical is cnn, fox and all the others running this material THEN the next day (after they've gotten their use out of it) coming out and criticizing nbc for airing it

can't have it both ways

 

[AKLes]

that's the great thing about living in america-----we have choices

Except, of course, when invited guest speakers at various universities are shouted down and threatened so as to silence them. But I guess that's the choice of those who can't stand to hear anything that flies in the face of their own indoctrination.

Yeah, so that's choice.......

Of course anybody who wanted to attend loses their choice but that's OK 'cause it's so very, very right that dissent be stifled.

Oh well...the TV coverage of the shout-downs IS news so one might guess it does serve some purpose.

 

[Markxxx]

At first I thought NBC was wrong to air the video, but then I examined it more.

The fact is plain and simple, someone is going to get this, and put it on YouTube or some other portion of the Internet. It will be available to those who want to watch it, IF they have high speed. If not those people are out of luck. So since people will see it anyway why NOT make it available to everyone not just those with high speed.

Unfortunately the news does a terrible job drawing a line at news and ratings now. If you ever watch the old "Mary Tyler Moore," show it is almost creepy the way things Murray and Lou Grant mocked Ted at doing, (like saying "Ted the NEWS is the star of the news not YOU), are now being done in real life.

The thing that gripes me is NOW we have people actively seeking to be on TV. They are rushing to be on TV. Just like the girls from Rutgers who all HAD to be on TV. No just issuing a statement, no they WANTED to be famous and on the news.

Furthermore the news shows put people on with nothing to say. For instance I don't mind an interview with a person who HAS something to say that is relevant. But ABC News put on a high school friend who spent his interview saying "Gee I don't know, I never would have thought it." Every question he was asked was "I don't know." So basically ABC did an entire interview where NOTHING was said.

This is a waste of time. With only 30 minutes a day ABC needs to report NEWS not waste time interviewing people with nothing to add.

I found it ironic that the media is STILL crying out, THE WORST SHOOTING OF STUDENTS in history. While this is true, it isn't the worst KILLING of students in history. That happened in 1927 in Bath Michigan by a man who used dynamite for most of his killings in a one room school house that killed 35 kids and 10 others.

See VA TECH is the worst SHOOTING, but not the worst killing. So while true it's misleading.

I went and looked up the historical archives of the Chicago Tribune for that killing, It was interesting that it was covered the day after it happened. The next day a follow up was published. The third day a small blip was put in the paper saying a memorial fund had been set up to help cover cost of the burial of the Bath, Michigan victims. That was all I could find. It was dwelled upon forever, at least in the Tribune.

On our local WGN news I saw a blip where they interviewed (not WGN but some related source in South Korea) the people that lived in the town where the shooter was from. The spokesman for the town said "this is not typical of the feeling of our town." Well DUH, what a waste of time.

There was another story where the anchorman said "It was said he was bullied but we can't find anyone to back this up." Well 32 people were just killed do you think anyone is going to come out and say "Yeah I bullied him a lot, I thought it'd be fun to drive him over the edge." Of course not, so we are generally stuck with a lot of worthless crap to drive up ratings at the expense of more newsworthy and important stories.

Let's face it, this was a tragedy but unlike 9-11 which basically effected us ass, this has no direct consequences for most Americans, other to make them realize just how random life is and how vulnerable we are. And how anyone determained to kill you can do so.

 

[sack]

Good post Mark. Well thought out.

I did want to comment on the language "shooting" vs. "Killing". During coverage of this event, I heard some anchor (can't remember who,, they are interchangable), continue to call it "An uspeakable event". If its unspeakable, why does she keep speaking about it? I would expect someone that is on national television to have a better grasp of the language. Horrible event, disgusting event,,, or just "event". How much further can we "dumb down" tv?

 

[radiofriend1]

that's the great thing about living in america-----we have choices

Except, of course, when invited guest speakers at various universities are shouted down and threatened so as to silence them. But I guess that's the choice of those who can't stand to hear anything that flies in the face of their own indoctrination.

Yeah, so that's choice.......

Of course anybody who wanted to attend loses their choice but that's OK 'cause it's so very, very right that dissent be stifled.

Oh well...the TV coverage of the shout-downs IS news so one might guess it does serve some purpose.

which has nothing to do w/nbc airing the materials

<sheesh>

 

[oaktree]

Mark...great post.

 

[AKLes]

which has nothing to do w/nbc airing the materials

<sheesh>

Well noted that the practice of shouting folks down is NOT denied.

It's hard to shout a network down but groups can make demands and organize boycotts, especially against a network which is parent of one so recently victimized in that manner by a stalwart of the extreme left. Actually, a pair of stalwarts.

 

[radiofriend1]

that is correct. hannity and oreilly do it for an hour every night on fox noise channel

 

[AKLes]

that is correct. hannity and oreilly do it for an hour every night on fox noise channel

Upon ever word of which you obviously hang nightly. It's what keeps the ratings up! I guess they went to liberal universities and perfected their techiques without subcscribing to the rest of the indoctrination. See? There IS room for independent thought.