New lows in tabloid "journaism"!

And this time it's going to get people killed.

The non stop coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre was bad enough but it did indeed reach new lows today.
Gunman sent package to NBC News

Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building, Cho Seung-Hui mailed NBC News a large package including photographs and videos Monday morning, boasting, “When the time came, I did it. I had to.”

Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, killed 32 people in two attacks before taking his own life.

And of course the network news and the cable tabloid networks are showing the pictures and videos with glee. If every nut case in the US wasn't already thinking I want to be like Cho they were after seeing his picture and words non stop on the TV screen. This is the kind of publicity many people like Cho are seeking when they take their own lives and the lives of others. Broadcasting the material contained in the package received by NBC is irresponsible. Of course these are the same networks that are cheerleaders for war because it's great for ratings. Expect to see copycat incidents as a result of this media attention.

Update
For once I have to have a little respect for NBC's Brian Willaims. According to the New York Times he was upset they broadcast as much as they did.

In an interview last night on MSNBC, Mr. Williams said NBC had been concerned about the sensitivities of broadcasting as much of the material as it did.

“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said.

via memeorandum

A Final Virginia Tech Post

Well we know who the shooter was:
Virginia Tech Killer Identified

April 17, 2007 — We now know the identity of the killer at Virginia Tech.

He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old resident alien of the United States, as first reported by ABC News.

Cho is a South Korean national, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English and the man who killed 33 people — including himself — on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

The reactions have been about what one would anticipate. From the left - not enough gun control, and from the NRA right - too much gun control. And also no surprise we have the always obnoxious Ann Coulter wannabe Debbie Schlussel who manages to push all the xenophobic buttons in one constantly updated post.

In the end what we had was one disturbed guy with guns. His race or where he is from has very little to do with it.

So where is all the good news?

Make no mistake, this is a tragedy.
Massacre at Virginia Tech:
33 Confirmed Dead

April 16, 2007— At least 33 people are dead in what may be the biggest mass shooting in modern American history.

Police at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., said that the shootings happened at a dormitory and a classroom on opposite sides of the university campus.

As one would expect there is nothing else on the Cable Tabloid Networks. Of course they fail to mention that this is a normal day in the hell on earth the lust for power, greed and incompetence of the Bush/Cheney cabal has created in Iraq. Larry Johnson asks:
Now Do You Understand?

The next time you hear Dick Cheney or George Bush blame the public attitude regarding Iraq on the media's failure to report "good news", examine carefully our reaction to the shooting at Virginia Tech. Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.

The people of Iraq are living in a Marquis de Sade version of Groundhog Day. It is like the Bill Murray movie--the same horrible day repeated with some new, bizarre twists--only not funny. Multiple body counts and explosions and shootings are the daily experience of the people of Iraq. They have been living this hell for four years. Just keep that fact in mind as you mourn the deaths of 22 American students slain in Blacksburg, Virginia.

There must have been some good news today. Why aren't the cable networks reporting it?