There is no justification for NBC airing the video (and so many pictures) from the shooter in the Virginia situation.
They have the right to do it, but it was not right to do it.
The usual excuse is that it will help the public “understand” the situation. What could normal people have learned at just this moment? That the shooter was quite mad? That the shooter was wicked? We knew that, I think, already.
What the release did do was cause more pain to the living victims and “help” those in the broader public who are mentally disturbed find a new hero and a video manifesto to study.
Perhaps (though it is hard to see why) when the media storm had passed, NBC could have made these videos public, but to do so now smacks of wanting to “strike” while interest was most high. This may serve curiosity and ratings, but waiting (if they ever should have been made public) would have still served the “need to know” (if such a thing exists) with less harm to those at a height of grief.
If NBC argues that they were “bad videos,” but someone would have aired them eventually it does not help NBC. If someone else is going to be bad, that does not give me a reason to be bad more quickly. Second, if the “someone else” had no “profit motive” in the release (for example: the government found material that could protect us from future events), then their releasing it much later would not be seen as a sordid exploitation of grief for profit.
It is sickening to make money and creating brand awareness (stamping NBC on every picture) out of the wicked rants of a disturbed mind.
We do know this about NBC. It is the network a wicked and insane person could rightly trust to air his delusions right away giving him the glory he craved.
Will any gentlemen or ladies there have the honor to resign or at least take the risk of stating their shock publicly?
The reality is that NBC had (so far as I know) the only copies of this wicked stuff. If they had given their only copy to the police, then there would now be no copies on the Internet. The authorities could have decided if there was matter in the videos that went beyond disturbed ranting and could (possibly) tell anyone something they did not know.
What is it that I am supposed to learn from your release NBC? That corporations will air anything if it makes them money? That you are profiting (by increasing web hits) by others pain? Unlike video during the act itself, which was widespread and was going to be aired in this Internet age by someone, you could have spared the hurting and the disturbed from more hurt and, perhaps, from something that could be the “tipping point” in them for more evil actions.
Have you no public responsibility?
NBC should not be censored by the government, but any good person censors self. Freedom to do a thing (which NBC should have) does not make it right or keep the rest of us from making the proper judgment that NBC was wrong.