Questionable Link

The link that I found was on CNN.com. It is http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/04/18/sot.nbc.cho.speaks.nbc. This is the video of the Virginia Tech Murderer's speech that was shown by most all TV stations and put on the sites of almost all news sites ran as well.

I don't think that I would run this. The news value is that he made a speech and what he said in it. His reason for putting it on video was to get some recognition and to try to get people to sympathize with him. To me, it isn't a good idea to give a person like him the time of day. To run this video is to fall into his trap. It is granting a murderer his last wish while the people he killed didn't have time to make one.

If a news organization really sees it necessary to give his reasons for murdering, which I wouldn't argue, it is sufficient to put it in text. This doesn't give him the fame or possible sympathy that comes with seeing his face, but it still gets the news across.