The World Newser

Get this pathetic sociopath off the air. The more publicity this man/boy gets the more damage it can do to others who have lost their way and are looking for answers or actions to get attention.

The media went too far in showing the video and messages of the Virginia Tech killer. This just glorifies or even justifes his views. Use some discretion in what you put on the air.... not everything is newsworthy. Don't be pressed by the raging competition between media outlets.

Don't blame the electronic media's releasing of the Gunman's video on newspapers and internet. Many papers have taken a beating for yesterday's news and were on the street before you ran the video. I really didn't notice it on the internet because I didn't search for it.

I think it is ridiculous to think that airing the VT killer's video would produce copycats. Only a person who has a pre-existing mental illness would see that video and then desire to repeat such a heinous act. However, I do think it is a good idea to limit the airing of the video and pictures on televesion out of respect for the families of the victims. There is always the web for people who want to watch the video in full or see more pictures.

Please don't lower yourself to NBC's level, don't show the video or make a self severving promo out of it.

Good Evening,
My husband & I try to never miss World News Tonight. We loved Peter Jennings & have always enjoyed Charlie Gibson on GMA & he is a welcome face in the evening. I'm sure I am not alone when I say my heart breaks for all of the victims & their families in the tragedy of Va Tech. I was dissapointed to see ABC point the finger at NBC news tonight on Charlie Gibsons broadcast. You know what they say about "glass houses". Every newscast, on every channel, has broadcast as much info as possible on Seung-Hui Cho. Charlie Gibson had a special 1 hour newscast Tuesday night. If ABC news had received the video & pictures from Seung-Hui Cho, would you have handled it any differently than NBC?? I saw the video & pictures on GMA this morning! I believe it is time to focus on the loss of all 33 victims. Let their families grieve in peace.
J. Macedonia

I was very disturbed that this video was aired, I am particularly disturbed with Charley Gibson talking about it with Cho's image displayed behind him. I am very disappointed with Charlie, I've always thought him above this "yellow" journalism. I dare say, Peter Jennings would not have done this.

Overall, I think it is time that our media start reporting some of the good things that happen. I'm personally sick of "US bashing". I'm sick of fires, floods, murders, rapes - let's report some good stuff and see where it leads us. Our media is a sorry, sorry leader of public opinions and values.

I realize this kind of reporting may not lead the Nielson ratings, but don't any of you people have any guts and daring, you are a sorry lot, bent on ratings and bucks.

Don Doele

Tonight I switched from nbc news after I saw too much of the Cho pictures. VT is a fabulous institution and I have had contacts there since the early 60s. I remember being the house guest of a professor and his wife at their home in Cambria,Va and a quick tour of the campus. My exchange son Trond from Norway received his bachelors degree from VT and he is now a very successful Norwegian factory manager. I noted in the memorial to the lost many were foreign.
Entirely too much time is given to terrible acts such as this and it can only empower other mental cases to get their "15 minutes of fame" on national TV.

If you are short of other news, I suggest you follow the example of H v Kaltenborn who during a radio news cast said that is all the news for tonight and the NBC orchestra played music for the balance of the newscast.

Please do not show the Cho videos ever again. If anything new is discovered regarding Cho, that can be released. Cho is not entitled to anymore air time. We need to move forward.
Thank you. L.L.Evans

I just wanted to add my 2¢ on this point. Understand, please, that I am not making apologies for Seung-Hui Cho’s actions, or providing an excuse or attempting to transfer responsibility for them to others. But, as disturbing as these images are, when viewed in the context of the comments by his high school classmates about Seung-Hui Cho having been the victim of bullying, we may be able to make SOME sense out of this incredibly senseLESS situation! If the Commission is able to determine that bullying played a significant role in shaping Cho’s warped psyche, and as a result we begin a nationwide discussion of this epidemic that leads to a concerted effort on everyone’s part to reduce, or ideally eliminate, the pandemic, maybe SOME good can come out of such tragedy! I certainly don’t know that it will turn out to be such an answer, but maybe if we can discern that Seung-Hui Cho sank to the degree of mental illness he did because he was initially teased about his speech defect and ultimately subjected to bullying because of it, maybe we’ll have at least one answer to the haunting question of ‘WHY????’

Bill Gammon

I'm "weighing in" Charles Gibson. I admire you very much, but the media is doing exactly what the killer at V. Tech wanted. C'mon, does the narcisstic attitude of all the media out-weigh what is proper and decent? We don't want the killer given exactly what he wanted! Why do you? Give us some integrity in the news!
Please!

It was so great to see the tribute to the 32 students at the end of World News tonight with Charlie Gibson. They are the faces I want to remember and the stories of who they were and hoped to be that I want to hear. My daughter is a sophmore at James Madison University and spends many weekends at Virginia Tech as they call it thier sister school. She was very upset at the release of those tapes last night. Please continue to help these students with their greiving process by not airing the killers videos, last words. Thanks

All too often members of the press rush to be the first to report on an event rather than to be the most reliable source of information. Offering the public an all too candid view of videos of an obviously mentally ill individual while the victims of this person are still reeling from shock over the deaths and injuries of their friends and loved ones is unconscionable. Yes, there is much that can be learned from the films by mental health and public safety professionals. However, the average citizen does not yet need to be exposed to these scenes. Allow victims time to develop at least a thin scab over their raw wounds before ripping it back off. Sensationalizing the killings by playing the videos is another example of the press not reporting the news but creating a visual tabloid.
The sense among many of the viewing public is not one of unbias and deliberate reporting but one of a feeding frenzy. It is time for the reporting sources in our country to rethink how and why they use the information at their disposal.

Please tell the media to stop badgering the V.T. staff and police, You are looking for a villian Thank God he is dead.
The support system around the university relies upon the strength around them. The students need our support and those that do not point fingers,
He is dead Yet they live and prosper to become part of our history.. Let them be strong and believe in the support around them. Stop trying to find the faults in us trying to assist and protect,

The media did no wrong in airing the contents of the killer at Virginia Tech.
Perhaps the blame? should be put upon the mental health professionals at the school. They considered him a danger to himself and others, yet recommended out patient treatments.
Who was making sure he went to the treatments, or took any medication needed.
He was kept in a enviroment among the people he expressed hate for, they school did not protect the mentally sick person or the innocent students and teachers who ended up dead... why... because either the cost of in patient treatment or the incompitance of the professionals this young man was left to solve his own problems.

Lets put the blame upon the mental health professionals at Virginia tech., who failed to help a sick mind and protect the innocent around him.

The gunman was obviously thinking clearly in one area - how to get his views aired and seen by the most people. Simply mail them to a major network who could not resist the "scoop".

The video is being aired way too much, I myself am sick of seeing it. I was glad to see ABC air pictures of the victims tonight, that is the way it should be. It is about them not the deranged killer. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, he intentionally did this. Lets remember the victims. I know we can't forget the killer, but he's not what is important anymore, he did this to himself, while the victims were innocent. Showing the video over and over again glorifies the shooter, and makes the victims seem unimportant. I agree with the college that enough is enough. Remember the innocent people in all of this.
Thank you,
Miranda L. of Colorado

RE: Your request for response to Virginia Tech coverage

Charles Gibson, you read the news that some group has agreed needs airing each night; however, your body language and demeanor reveal a compassionate and caring person that would like to give voice to the magnificent true and creative wholeness of our shared human nature.

For years the TV news media and entertainment programs have, perhaps unwittingly, offered high visibility to the downward spiral of simplistic “pop” culture promoters who have exploited masses of good people, young and old, offering easy access to emotional excitement masquerading as satisfaction. Now it requires ultra violence to grab the attention of numbed and ever lonelier viewers.

Instead of giving a lonesome killer’s flawed perception wide-spread visibility, why not spend at least an equal amount of time and energy on college and university campuses to bring into view the many inspiring faculty and students who are creating expanded insights into the deeper connective nature of our magnificent human species.

There and elsewhere, awaits only some genuine curious journalism.

Professor Liviu Librescu is ROMANIAN not from Israel!

I support NBS’s decision to show the Cho Seung-Hui’s images and videos. I believe this to be a horrific event, and to prevent this from happening again, we must face this head on. For many of us, this is going to be an extremely difficult task. We have a responsibility as humans to fight for each other, look after each other, support each other, and to protect each other whether we choose to accept it or not; we are liable for one another.

Many have called it an obscenity. The obscenity began long before their airing (over & over) the video. It began when all those network nightly "news" anchors raced down to western Virginia, replete with commercial interruptions.

And the obscenity continues until something better comes along.

Now ain't that America!

I gained more respect for ABC News today when you listened to your viewers and stopped showing the video and pictures of the Virginia Tech murderer. I would much rather remember the victims and survivors of this tradegy as well as how the VT community has come together.

The media has been waiting weeks for this kind of thing! Ever since Anna Nicole was found dead in her hotel room, the media has been waiting for a gruesome story to run with for as long as they can. I have not seen the video of the killer and truthfully do not want to. I am tired of hearing about him. His past or his upbringing or how he spent his time will not change that he killed 32 people! And obviousely we as a society are not familiar enough with the signs of derranged individuals and how to treat them and how to help them. Because we have another school shooting.
If the public had more of a say in what is aired on our news programs I do not think that any program would still be running info about the killer and hopefully they would be winding down the footage from VT. Because I believe that the students their do not want to rehash the events for more news anchors. Leave them alone!!! Send our prayers and concerns and let them start healing!!!
To all the friends and families of the VT victims my heart goes out to you and I PRAY that in all this saddness you can find something to smile about sometime soon!!

I will never forget my experience watching CNN's Larry King and AC 360 last night. For three hours straight, they repeatedly aired the same pictures, audio, and video of Cho, over and over again. I absolutely agree that the information was, at first newsworthy. But to rebroadcast the same images, over and over again, with a split screen, so that the viewer had to see them, while listening to debates and analysis, for hours, was, in my view, "pornographic," as ABC News Publicist, Jeffrey Schneider, correctly opined.

CNN may have had my attention last night, because I hoped to see more background on the victims and their families, but I have been so deeply disturbed by what I saw last night that I will not tune into that network again... I can only ask myself, what were their motives? Yes, it was newsworthy, at first, but to replay them over and over again, for hours, and even in the same hour of the same program, was inexcusable...have they no sensitivity at all, or are they just without any sense of propriety or conscience?

Thank you ABC for your decision to not continueing to run that video, I wish NBC had not began by airing it. Charlie Gibson does an exceptional job of balancing the news, and everything is handled with great sensitivity and in good taste. Thank you Charlie for doing such a fine job on this news story and the exceptional reporting you do on so many news stories. Your coverage of Pres. Ford's funeral was great, you didn't feel you had to talk continuely, but the let moments speak for themselves. Thanks ABC and especially Charlie

I agree that the video should not have been aired over and over, but I think ABC's coverage, as always, was professional and dignified. Your tribute last night to those killed was very moving.

The parents of the slain and injured victims became "victims themselves" when they received the horrible news about their children. Then NBC News had to "knock them down again" by airing this filth created by a maniac. Shame on you NBC.

Ratings seem to be the MO of the day in which we live.

I think the media was justified in covering his "manifesto", but NOT in the sensationalistic way it was covered.

By airing the iconic images of him in his gangsta pose pointing guns at the camera, I'm afraid that the media have provided an "object of devotion" for the next killer. Note, this does not cause or excuse the next shooter, but provides one more stepping stone on their path to destruction.

The media in general chose sensationalism and brief ratings boost over social responsibility.
NBC News has lost a long time viewer. While I appreciate ABC's relative restraint, ABC also promoted the videos on its website even while having an article calling the display a "social catastrophe".