This week, the world has witnessed unparalleled coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech. I am not sure will how this has been covered inside the United States, but outside the United States the coverage has been sickening.
Some broadcasters have advised us for days that, although some people object to the nonstop broadcasting of the videotape and pictures that Cho sent to NBC, it is important that they broadcast these materials as part of the "research" by the networks. Is the public really so stupid as to believe that these guys are doing any research or, if they are, that they need to broadcast the images to do it?
Of course, in broadcasting this material so widely and so often and in giving it such prominence, NBC and the other networks invite sick people everywhere to place Americans and others at risk to future incidents of this type. The worldwide problem with terrorism wasn't enough. Now, we have to invite every person with delusional tendencies to go for his badge.
I suppose I am just being self-centered, I mean, as long as it's for research, why not?
The hypocrisy is so thick, it is impenetrable. Rebuffed by parents who cancelled interviews after the Cho footage was shown, CNN put up a web-page to "celebrate these 32 extraordinary lives". Please, without any wish to disparage these kids, their families, or their memories, these kids were the victims of a random killing. Maybe some were extraordinary but they deserve to be acknowledged based on who they were, not with some false hype. At least allow them the honesty of that in death.
The University, which as been asked serious questions about its behavior after the first shootings, is not without its own attempts to use hype, as the "We are Virginia Tech" calls to wear school colors and "show support" suggest. This is not the aftermath of a loss on the football field. Granting degrees to the victims, as if these degrees were their goal and not a tool to achieve their goals in life, will not make it all go away.
I am not saying that the University is at blame but rather that responding to such senselessness killings with a call to school colors is inappropriate. Instead, the interests of everyone would be best served by finding new ways to identify and treat people like Cho, before they do something like this. Who better to do that than a University that claims to hold some of the world's best minds? One hopes that Virigina Tech will not let this opportunity slip away.
What I have despised most of all about the press coverage of this tragic incident is the damage that the American international press has done to perceptions about the American public in the way that it has foolishly portrayed them and their potential behavior during this scramble for audience share.
One would think that blood-thirsty mobs are being formed to roam the streets of America with the intention of hanging foreigners. Let's not forget that the fact that this will not occur is one of the things that distinguishes America over a lot of other countries.
I have been asked if Koreans or other internationals would be unsafe in America. After all, CNN has suggested that parents should be concerned and shown interviews with Korean parents in which it asked them if they were worried. Local news services pick this up as if it were news.
Coverage that anticipates possible problems is not news, it is opinion or conjecture. Pity the poor college kid in the States who has a normal altercation with a Korean roommate about something else this month.
This is a rant and I announced it as such. My point is that these idiots do a lot of harm to America and Americans with their stupidity. Why give a distrubed person like Cho such a license to accomplish his goals from the grave? Why broadcast these delusional assertions that people spit in his face? Hung on a cross? Let his blood?
Why give an international audience the potential to believe that Americans hurt this guy, when instead he was given mental health assistance and support? Why glorify his deeds? Why even bring up the potential for American reactions against Koreans and Asians in general? Would Americans have exterminated themselves if it was an American-born kid? Has there been any evidence of these lynch mobs?
Stupid truly is as stupid does. The idiots at all of the major news networks have done America and Americans a great disservice in the way that they have covered this. Worse yet, in a world with global media, these fools have placed American lives at risk.
Some broadcasters have advised us for days that, although some people object to the nonstop broadcasting of the videotape and pictures that Cho sent to NBC, it is important that they broadcast these materials as part of the "research" by the networks. Is the public really so stupid as to believe that these guys are doing any research or, if they are, that they need to broadcast the images to do it?
Of course, in broadcasting this material so widely and so often and in giving it such prominence, NBC and the other networks invite sick people everywhere to place Americans and others at risk to future incidents of this type. The worldwide problem with terrorism wasn't enough. Now, we have to invite every person with delusional tendencies to go for his badge.
I suppose I am just being self-centered, I mean, as long as it's for research, why not?
The hypocrisy is so thick, it is impenetrable. Rebuffed by parents who cancelled interviews after the Cho footage was shown, CNN put up a web-page to "celebrate these 32 extraordinary lives". Please, without any wish to disparage these kids, their families, or their memories, these kids were the victims of a random killing. Maybe some were extraordinary but they deserve to be acknowledged based on who they were, not with some false hype. At least allow them the honesty of that in death.
The University, which as been asked serious questions about its behavior after the first shootings, is not without its own attempts to use hype, as the "We are Virginia Tech" calls to wear school colors and "show support" suggest. This is not the aftermath of a loss on the football field. Granting degrees to the victims, as if these degrees were their goal and not a tool to achieve their goals in life, will not make it all go away.
I am not saying that the University is at blame but rather that responding to such senselessness killings with a call to school colors is inappropriate. Instead, the interests of everyone would be best served by finding new ways to identify and treat people like Cho, before they do something like this. Who better to do that than a University that claims to hold some of the world's best minds? One hopes that Virigina Tech will not let this opportunity slip away.
What I have despised most of all about the press coverage of this tragic incident is the damage that the American international press has done to perceptions about the American public in the way that it has foolishly portrayed them and their potential behavior during this scramble for audience share.
One would think that blood-thirsty mobs are being formed to roam the streets of America with the intention of hanging foreigners. Let's not forget that the fact that this will not occur is one of the things that distinguishes America over a lot of other countries.
I have been asked if Koreans or other internationals would be unsafe in America. After all, CNN has suggested that parents should be concerned and shown interviews with Korean parents in which it asked them if they were worried. Local news services pick this up as if it were news.
Coverage that anticipates possible problems is not news, it is opinion or conjecture. Pity the poor college kid in the States who has a normal altercation with a Korean roommate about something else this month.
This is a rant and I announced it as such. My point is that these idiots do a lot of harm to America and Americans with their stupidity. Why give a distrubed person like Cho such a license to accomplish his goals from the grave? Why broadcast these delusional assertions that people spit in his face? Hung on a cross? Let his blood?
Why give an international audience the potential to believe that Americans hurt this guy, when instead he was given mental health assistance and support? Why glorify his deeds? Why even bring up the potential for American reactions against Koreans and Asians in general? Would Americans have exterminated themselves if it was an American-born kid? Has there been any evidence of these lynch mobs?
Stupid truly is as stupid does. The idiots at all of the major news networks have done America and Americans a great disservice in the way that they have covered this. Worse yet, in a world with global media, these fools have placed American lives at risk.
