TV Turn off Week...or What is WRONG with us?

NBC ‘massacres’ a delicate story

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, April 26, 2007 – Page 3

I’m kind of a journalistic purist who believes that newspapers should provide information that readers can use toward sound judgements essential to the healthy functioning of a democracy. I want to train kids to be better communicators for the common well being of the community and to be more savvy consumers of the media, equipped to be discriminating. Call me a hopeless idealist, but that’s what happens when you’ve been teaching journalism for over a decade.

There are these things called the elements of news-worthiness, that you’re supposed to consider when deciding whether or not to cover something, such as timeliness, proximity, prominence, consequence, conflict, and human interest. All of these ought to be weighed against the news agency’s concept of what they see as the public’s well being.

Before releasing the contents of a package sent to them by mass murderer Seung Hui Cho, NBC failed to consider anyone’s well being. All they seemed to have cared about was ratings and “scooping” everybody else.

But that’s not the only problem with how this story has been handled.
I was appalled by the media’s coverage of the tragedy at Virginia Tech last week.
I overheard a variety of responses in the faculty lounge. Most were disgusted by how TV news has been milking it for everything it’s worth and disappointed by how emotional and melodramatic coverage has been. Perhaps more restraint and stoicism would’ve actually been more respectful.

Others were concerned that there was SO much speculation and reporting before there had been any information even collected by, let alone released by law enforcement.

A couple of people said that they can’t stand to pay attention to the news because everything is so negative. Others find it ironic that 2-3 times as many people die each day, everyday in Iraq, but that doesn’t receive near as much coverage or as much sensationalism.

I know I was surprised that on Tuesday nigh TV reporters interviewed a number of VT students who said that they didn’t think that the college could have done anything better to protect them- but the next morning’s paper featured a headline about how frustrated students were that the college didn’t do more.

This afternoon on National Public Radio, they interviewed a college official who was frustrated that pro-gun activists were using the tragedy to argue that all students should’ve been allowed to carry concealed weapons to protect themselves. Certainly there are those on the Left who have already been blaming the shooting on Virginia’s lack of regulations of firearms. Should it be a starting point for debate?

I have to tell you, I was certainly tempted to write a column about gun control. But I decided that it would be taking advantage of a heinous incident to make a political point, so I decided not to.

How about all of the samples of the killer’s poems, stories and plays that are popping up on the web? Should the media make such a heinous killer famous posthumously?

I was absolutely sickened by the things that TV news programs aired from Cho’s now infamous package to NBC. By showing his video diatribes over and over again, not only did they give him the fame and attention which he hoped for, but I believe that they compounded the pain and damage to the families of the victims and to the communities of Virginia Tech and Blacksburg, Virginia. It was like coming in behind him with more guns, shooting people once they were already down.

NBC should’ve handed the entire package over to the FBI or at least asked experts to analyze the materials and report on them without presenting the original material, over and over again ad nauseam as they did. Who would it have hurt for them to at least have held the materials for several weeks before releasing them?

Certainly this tragedy, like others before it at high schools reveal a disconnected, unsympathetic and violent society. Certainly, like the September 11 attacks or Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it reveals how painfully unprepared our institutions are to handle crises. And certainly it reveals that we need to consider regulations and procedures in both gun availability and in the field of mental health treatment. But most of all, it revealed what a salacious, sensational, insensitive and irresponsible media we have.

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2 Ted has started a new blog that focuses on Journalism and the media at http://thepresscorps.blogspot.com