Thursday, April 19, 2007

Procrastinatory comment on the Virginia Tech video

There's been a lot of hoopla (perhaps, even, a kerfuffle) regarding NBC's decision to air parts of the Shoot-y McNutball's ranting video that he sent before finishing off his little rampage. Some of the parents of the victims cancelled their interviews on Today in protest at its airing. NBC insists it "didn't make the decision (to air the video) lightly," and that it is in the public interest to understand the mind of a killer.

Which is horse-shit, frankly. From a moral standpoint, there is no fucking reason to air the video, and lots of reasons not to. The video, and the shootings, were one big attention-getting ploy, just like the Columbine shootings, and "completing the circle," as I believe Brian Williams admitted NBC was doing, just encourages other nutballs. At the same time, there's nothing in the video we really need to know. I'm not saying don't report that the video exists. All you need to say about it, though, is that "the shooter sent a rambling, incoherent video to NBC." That's it. He was clearly batshit insane. No one is under any delusion that he wasn't. So, we don't need the evidence that he is. A verbal description suffices. I don't see NBC airing the videos suicide bombers leave before blowing up markets in Baghdad, do you? Then why the fuck is it necessary to view this video?

All that said, I find it very unlikely that someone wouldn't ultimately have gotten their hands on it and at least leaked it to the Internet if not some other sleazeball network like Fox, so it's not like the video would have been quelled. I understand that. So, in that sense, NBC's gesture would have been ultimately futile, so they might as well show it. I'm just saying that it is basically immoral for anyone to show the video even though pragmatically somebody will. I mostly wish NBC would just come clean and say, "Yeah, we probably shouldn't air it, but you'll see it anyway, so here it is." None of this horse shit about public interest.

In other news, man is Alberto Gonzales a douchebag. I hope to god he gets what's coming to him, namely, a boot on his ass. What a stubborn prick to not resign when everyone has made it perfectly clear they don't want him around. No wonder Bush likes him.

With that and the calls for Wolfowitz to resign from the World Bank, the Bush administration really has become a farce at this point.

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