Virginia Tech Shooter Got His Wish: The Whole World Watched His Video Messages

By Brigitte L. Nacos
A dozen years ago, when the so-called Unabomber Ted Kaczynski threatened to mail more lethal letter bombs unless the New York Times and Washington Post published his “manifesto” before a certain date, the newspapers’ managements understood their predicament: publish the lengthy tract and open the door for further demands by the Unabomber and others or refuse to publish and risk more killings via letter bombs. Only after lengthy discussions, consultations with FBI experts and the Attorney-General did the Washington Post (the New York Times shared the printing costs) publish a special section that contained the full text of the Unabomber’s declaration. This time around, it did not take NBC News long to put the Virginia Tech shooter’s do-it-yourself video production on the air and thereby fulfill his twisted last will: Just as terrorists are stunningly successful in exploiting the mass media to get attention and win a stage to explain their motives, Cho Seung Hui dominated for a long day television news in never-ending replays of the same images and messages. The phony explanations by anchor Brian Williams and others at NBC were self-serving and not convincing at all. Not surprisingly in the competitive television marketplace, the competitors followed NBC’s example by showing the disturbing images again and again—at times showing the NBC logo to perhaps protect themselves from growing criticism by the families of Virginia Tech victims.

However disturbed and deranged the killer of 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech was as he prepared his unprecedented killing spree, he followed the publicity scheme of modern-day terrorists: Just as suicide terrorists prepare explanatory video-tapes before they kill themselves to kill others, Cho produced comprehensive video material to explain his grievances. Just as terrorists use such videotapes to vilify their target societies and immediate targets to justify their violence, Cho used his production to blame American society and his targets to justify his killings. Some of the images Cho selected are eerily reminiscent of those recorded by terrorists—especially the one in which Cho holds a knife to his throat—just as terrorists in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan held knives to the throats of their Western hostages and eventually decapitated them.
When terrorists strike, they seek and receive a great deal of news coverage. The media also get what they seek most: shock, drama, tragedy, grief, villains and victims—the ingredients of infotainment that are believed to keep audiences captivated and thus enhance ratings and circulation. In that sense, then, the news media and terrorists are in a symbiotic relationship—they feed off each other. And now the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shootings managed to imitate the terrorist propaganda script and achieve the same result as media-savvy terrorists.
Now one wonders whether Cho’s publicity success, made possible by an accommodating media, will became a model for others who entertain the idea or actually plan crimes.
The question here is not whether the news media should report on criminals and terrorists. Of course, they should. The question is how to report and how much. The delivery of the disturbing material to NBC was a news development and should have been reported—perhaps even an image or two of Cho’s production included. Instead, the media—including most print organizations—went for the overkill. When the networks reacted to protests and announced they would limit the use of the shooter’s video images, it was the right decision—too late.

 

Comments

[Brigitte]

Patrick: Thanks for a crucial information that few people know (I certainly did not)--82 death by gun shots just in Baltimore. That tells the story--especially when compared to democracies in Europe with rather tough gun controls and very low murders by perpetrators using hand guns.

[Patrick]

Brigette, I agree with your view of NBC spewing the psycho killer
garbage in trade for ratings. We cannot seem to arrest our gluttonous appetites whether
for twinkies, gas hog autos, or blood thrill TV news in color. Another
extension of the killer glorification is that it provides the NRA and
conservative brownshirts a perfect backdrop to continue their
authoritarian orwellian crackdown on individual freedoms and privacy
under the misdirected 'individual responsibilities' mantra rather
than honestly facing the more difficult sociological dysfunctions
evidenced by the 82 anonymous, forgotten guns deaths in nearby
Baltimore so far this year.

[Benni]

One of the good but rare texts about the killing and its background.