Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Continuing Story of VA Tech.

I turned on the news this morning at 7:30 a.m. and was greeted with video clips that Cho Seung Hui had recorded of himself. They were incredibly disturbing, and it made me upset that the news stations were even showing this! How does letting everyone see this video in ANY WAY make things better? It merely continues to exacerbate the situation. Sometimes it blows my mind to see the stupidity of our media.
I was pleased to see, a few minutes later, that as Dr. Michael Welmer (a psychiatrist) was being interviewed, he stated, "Stop showing this video now! This is a social catastrophe."
At least someone had some sense this morning.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Its sad that the focus continues to be so incredibly misplaced in this tragedy. I pray for peace and discernment for the world stage (not just the nation, everyone watches us and judges) regarding this issue.

I am constantly dismayed horribly at our media and the obcessions they have and perpetrate. Who is more peverse though? The media outlets for putting this crap out there or the freakish millions who gobble up the mess.

Sidenote: Really andrea? You get up early enough in the morning to catch up on the news? Wow. You are aware that they show it at night too and Breakthrough probably has newspapers and stuff.
You continue to amaze me buddy.

Rebecca said...

ah yes, the media. as one who had a media major in college, I often find myself defending it. Not this time. I know print and broadcast medias are a business like anyother and so they have to attract viewers to keep that money coming in. However, I think it's highly inappropriate to broadcast what they did on the air. Having had quite a few discussions about ethics in media in class, I must say the news stations are showing a lack of ethics....which also shows a lack of common sense. Media is like politics....you gotta do what you can to get the votes, i.e. people watching to boost ratings. Sadly ethics fly out the window when they think they can sqeeze out a profit. I think its the nature of competitive America, and that speaks to an even broader problem in society.

Anonymous said...

Amen! My sis lives in Blacksburg and just got her masters at VT last year. I totally agree, the situation was made worse by the media frenzy last week. Hopefully things will get back to "normal" for them as soon as possible. I'm sure that video hurt all the families who lost someone they love....along with Cho's family.