NBC News May Apologise for Airing Cho Seng-hui Videos

The Virginia massacre has continued to generate arguments and criticisms around the globe. A group has identified itself on their website www.newsboycott.com,
as “Concerned Citizens” has begun a campaign to petition NBC News and
request a public apology and admission of errors from NBC News. They
claim that NBC News received a multimedia package from Cho Seng-hui,
the Virginia Tech murderer. They waited, by their own admission,
roughly 30 minutes to decide whether to air it or not. Then, they
staggered the release from 6:30pm to about 10pm or so to maximize
ratings. (Somehow they also promptly turned it over to authorities, but
I guess “promptly” means after making copies of everything.)

While
they do have right to air that crap, they also have a responsibility to
not be morons. If they ever air anybody which says videogames,
availability of handguns, movies etc. causes these mass murderers
(despite their trivially low probability, knock on wood) instead of say
the more likelier reasons: organic brain disease, mental illness,
social isolation and domestic abuse, then maybe they should ask that
same pundit if media companies airing all the pictures, videos, and
random sick thoughts by former killers might cause/create/give new
ideas to new mass murderers. And why “reward” people that do such
things? Simply put, the cultural transmission of these ideas and
positive reinforcement of killing pe