Happy 4-20

Cho sent NBC a treat a few days back in the form of a multimedia powerpoint presentation of hate. The 1,800-word mumbled manifesto comes off like some depressed kid's livejournal entry.

Here's the video, linked in a chopped-up form from YouTube for reasons I'll talk about in a second. Cho looks down at his feet and mumbles in monotone.

"I had to... You had a hundred billion chances to avoid today, but you decided to spill my blood, etc."

You know the quotes by now. But take away everything you know about this story and imagine someone just sent you this video of a kid ranting like this and pointing firearms at a camera while looking tough. He comes off like any other idiot on the Internet; parading his darkness around for everyone to see, proudly reciting practiced and embarrassing speeches, and posing daringly.

So, naturally people need to get worked into a tizzy over NBC's decision to air the footage. And just like every time the news confronts you with something you don't want to see, it's time to get righteously indignant. It's time for a good ol' fashioned media spankin'! Immediately, news organizations begin censoring themselves.

NEW YORK - With a backlash developing against the news media for airing sickening photos from Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui, Fox News Channel said Thursday it would stop showing them and other networks said they would severely limit their use.

Well, the video was shocking to the families of the victims, to be sure. But how much worse can it be from the full-steam-ahead nonstop, no-end-in-sight coverage the media outlets have been using since Monday? And to be fair, Brian Jennings prefaced the footage with about 3 excruciating minutes of buildup and explanation. Anyone who had any problems with the video had oodles of time to get up from their chair, rip up the couch cushions to look for the remote to turn the volume down, head for the door, trip over the cat on the way out, fix the crooked picture of grandma hanging on the wall, scratch their nose and head for the kitchen for a snack before Cho's face popped up once in the coverage.

The police, ever the shining moral compass for the rest of the nation, said they were disappointed in the airing of the footage. I'd have a snarky comment about that, but getting pooh-poohed by a cop is like getting let off with a warning instead of a speeding ticket.

NBC defended its use of the video and they're the ones coming out on top of this whole mess. They had their scoop over everyone else and now other major news organizations are too limp-wristed to use the video themselves.

The gains of sensationalism aside, you can't let something like this go. As a reporter it's your job to fill in the public with as many details as you can. The first and biggest question out of everyone's mouth after something like this is "Why?" So "why" not give the killer a chance to speak for himself?

It's not like this is the first video of a school shooting the media ever ran. Recognize this? And in an era of Myspace where cameras are cheap and your personal dignity is easier than ever to sell out, Cho's videotaped rant is a historic moment where everyone with access to a computer can get inside the head of a lunatic.

People want to hear what he has to say. People *want* to see that tape. As much as they don't like to admit it, people want to look when they see a car accident on the side of the road.

Psychologists had this to say about the tape. I don't want to concede that they have a point, because I don't know if they do. I feel funny when people in suits tell me that the public should be protected from some kinds of speech, especially when its as ridiculous and bumbling as Cho's.

April 20 (4-20, geddit?) marks the 8th Anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. Marilyn Manson, gave several brilliant interviews as everyone was busy trying to stick his head on a pike as a warning other rock artists. Today, as reports try to turn this into Columbine 2.0 (remember the Natural Born Killers?) I think it might be worthwhile to link Manson's interview with Michael Moore. Manson said he would have listened to the killers. I don't think this would work in Cho's case, as Cho didn't really like to talk that much.

Fox Experts: Satan Turned Cho Evil!

Fox News interviewed more experts, one of which is from Oral Roberts University, who claimed that The Devil could have masterminded Cho's shooting.

Was Cho Seung-Hui schizophrenic … psychotic … manic-depressive? Or were the shooting deaths of 32 people, including Cho himself, at Virginia Tech University part of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan … good against evil … lightness and darkness?

Could Cho have been possessed by the Devil? Could that explain the massacre at Virginia Tech?

Not only is Roberts the president of the university, but he's also seen The Devil cast out of a person. That's why he's an expert on the subject.

They cite the Stanford Prison Experiment as an example of "outside demonic possession" or, how Satan gets into your soul from the outside. In the prison experiment, it says the prison environment allowed Satanic influence to pollute the hearts of the student volunteers. In Cho's case, the experts say, it's *obvious* it was outside satanic influence corrupting his mind because he left a note ranting against rich kids and charlatans.

While the prison experiment is a creepy read, I don't think it mentioned Satan once. But if I was the kind of person who saw the Devil's face in the 9-11 smoke, I'd be pretty alarmed at evil colleges and universities where this sort of thing went on:

Satanic “oppression," on the other hand, is "that which comes against." "It’s not in a person, but is coming against them, trying to put evil thoughts in their minds,” Roberts said.

Wouldn't you?

We're a little over 72 hours out from the shooting. Keep in mind that very little is known about Cho. His family is still in seclusion from the press. The truth will out, but in the meantime we can interpret and re-interpret the facts to fit whatever costume we want to dress it in. And afterword it won't even matter what actually happened!

Oddly enough, a pastor at the Crystal Cathedral had the most levelheaded comment in the entire article.

Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, who says he’s “not prepared to give the Devil credit for insanity.”

In addition to his theological accolades, Schuller has a background in psychology. He says of Cho: “I think it’s pure psychotic crack-up.

“I’m not denying that Satan himself could have been in this act. I’m just saying if he was, I’m not giving him credit for it.”

Speaking of which, I'm wondering about some of this attribution. What exactly constitutes Schuller's psychological background, for example? Wikipedia said he graduated with a liberal arts degree followed up by a theology degree, but makes no references to psychology. His Hour of Power homepage refers to him as Dr. Schuller, but his doctorate degrees are all honorary.

The closest thing to a "psychological background" I could find for him was a leadership award from the Munger Center of Psychological Services. I couldn't find a Web site, but I found it referenced on another Christian counseling Web site as a Christian psychology center located in Hollywood.

So Schuller isn't a doctor of anything, he may have only taken a psych course during his time at college and he has a leadership award from a faith-based counseling center that doesn't have any information online. Faith based counseling, as some of you remember, brings us things like the possibly damaging reparative therapy for homosexuals.


And yet he's attributed as source on psychology?

I know for us hip and cynical Internet people, this isn't a big surprise coming from Fox News. They carry their bias like a 20-pound sledge hammer. But it's the little subtle pinpricks like this that undermine the very basics of reporting. Imagine the *millions* of people who read that story and think "well he is an authority on psychology, he should know!"

Let's muscle this shooting into a debate on Iraq and Iran.

A blogger put this whole shooting into a -eh- perspective by comparing it to one day in Iraq. Posted under the title, "Now Do You Understand?" Larry Johnson compares Monday's body count to a pile of articles of Iraqi body counts.

He says:

The next time you hear Dick Cheney or George Bush blame the public attitude regarding Iraq on the media's failure to report "good news", examine carefully our reaction to the shooting at Virginia Tech. Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.

First of all, I wanted to post this because - in addition to videogames, gun laws, campus security, and authority failure - we have now co-opted the shooting into a debate about Iraq and U.S. Foreign policy. I'm split on how I feel about his article. While this has certainly shocked the nation, I can't help but feel that every other college student in the country is reasonably certain they'll come home from class at the end of the day. That and the worst of it is already over. He did blow his brains out already and there isn't a few hundred Seung-Hui's willing to do the same like there is in Iraq.

The suicide bombers in Iraq and their American foes also work with some ideology behind them. And with every new story that's published about Cho, it's more and more certain that "F--king Crazy" is not an ideology.

President Bush is more subtle.

At his speech at the U.S. Holocaust museum today, he honored Yitzhak Benhorin, the Holocaust-surviving professor that threw himself in front of Cho's gun to stop him from entering the classroom.

Serial killers and mass murderers traditionally are more famous than their victims. But Benhorin's actions showed a level of utter manliness that you can't even describe with a vulgar turn of phrase or a Chuck Norris joke.

Bush followed up his comments on Benhorin with this observation about Iran. I read a post on a forum that someone lamented that this shooting was the worst thing that could have happened to America at this point. I think the poster is insane. This shooting is the best thing to happen to politicking since the temperance movement.

And you who have survived evil know that the only way to defeat it is to look it in the face and not back down.

Westboro Baptist Church

It can't be a big crazy media circus if all of the big crazies aren't invited! GodHatesAmerica was updated today with this uplifting spiritual message.

Get this straight -- God sent this South Korean madman to kill 31 of your children at Virginia Tech. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.

They're getting really snappy with their hate stunts. It took almost a week after the Tsunami for WBC to get the ball rolling.

"The South Korean Madman" sounds like a good name for a Pride fighter.

Disturbing writings in question

I know the Internet must have lapped me about a billion times on this, but here are those disturbing writings.

Too many people are calling them "disturbing writings." I'll call them "Wacky Plays" from now on.

I was at work and missed them. Timeliness?! BAH!


Hey, didn't someone make a play of the Ripper IRC drug overdose?
I wonder who will be the first to give these plays some stage time. I hear those Nigerian e-mail scammers are pretty good actors.

Ah who am I kidding? These plays suck. Hollywood does crazy people a lot better than the crazy people themselves.

With every national disaster that happens, a little more of our innocence gets sucked away. People lost their faith in the government during the Vietnam War, people lost their sense of safety after 9-11. And after reading those plays, I'm never going to hear Guns N' Roses in the same way ever again.

"Yes, this was free speech, but..." :Teacher Reacts to Disturbed writings

After everything that's happened since 9-11 and after everything that's happened as a result of the Hurricane Katrina, do you think that this time around we'll have more of the 1990s "Oh my god! Is it the Devil Music or irresponsible parents that make evil youth!" or more of the sleek and sexy "The people in charge are to blame!" attitude of the 2000s?

Already, we know that people are upset that the students weren't warned earlier. But now that some details are starting to file in about this derranged little guy:


"When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends," Ian MacFarlane wrote to AOL, "and my second thought was 'I bet it was Seung Cho'."


Forget knowing about this for 2 hours and not doing anything! Hell! These people knew how odd this guy was for YEARS and didn't do anything about it! Watch this!

Cho, an English major, never wrote about guns or killing people, she said. But his writing was disturbing enough that she went to police and other university officials to seek help. (Watch the professor tell how her student frightened her )

"Reporter: She tried and tried and tried to alert university officials to what she thought was a troubled student ."

"Lou: Such a remarkable woman... the idea that a student... could not be dealt with by the university and by dealt with I mean helped! Is that because of privacy law? What is the reason?


"Reporter: Well she told us the law needs to be changed. Yes, it was sort of an exercise of free speech exercised by the student in these writings... They told her that there was nothing warning of impending violence so because of that they said there was nothing to be done as far as pulling him out of that department, of pulling him out of that program."

Remember being in school and getting in trouble for some saying "I'm going to kill you!" to some jerk in gymn class? Well we have to go even farther than that!

VTech Admins may have been legally obligated to warn students?

In trying to hazard a guess at what topics might come into play over and over again in the coverage of the shooting, I think it's worthwhile to point out a line in the Haas e-mail that leads us to some interesting angles.

We want the Grand Valley community to know that we have had emergency response plans in place for many years. We test, review and update those plans regularly - we did so most recently after the murder of a student at another Michigan university.

A quick Google search to refresh my memory lead me to this story from Detroit. Late last month, a story broke raising questions that school officials at Eastern Michigan University had reason to suspect foul play over the rape and death of a student.... oooonly they might not have told anyone about it.

Despite the implications the death was viewed as suspicious early on by police, university officials did not back down from their earlier statement of no foul play until Taylor was arrested Feb. 23.

University spokesman Ward Mullens said he could not discuss when the university learned it was a possible murder or how the university handled the case.

"I'm not able to say anything relative to the case," he said.

The university's handling of the case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education, and the college has hired Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long P.C. to do an internal review.

Now this is a big deal according to the Clery Act, which states that universities MUST disclose information about crime on or near campus.

Obviously this puts school administrators in the hot seat. On one hand you don't want to scare the bejesus out of your paying custom- er- students. But on the other hand you can't (legally) act like a creepy shadow government and cover up a murder.

Well, connect the dots on your own and see how yesterday's shooting and this murder compare to each other. I heard on NPR today that the VTech president was welcomed with a standing ovation at a memorial service today, how much longer before palm sunday ends and everyone's calling for his execution once this little tidbit of info gets linked to what is already being called a dispicable response time?

Well, what is the news saying?

Students were not warned of any danger until more than two hours after Monday's first attack - at a dormitory where two people were killed.

I guess the defense in that case could be that it's really hard to alert thousands of students all at once. But in the words of a friend of mine "if you started runing around the campus shrieking at the top of your lungs, people would eventually get the idea."

So when you're reading your concerned e-mails from the university admins, keep this story in mind.

Grand Valley State University mass e-mail

In an earlier post, I thought it would be interesting to gauge public reaction to the shooting by posting the en-masse e-mails universities are sending to their students. A reader sent this to me from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. The school has an enrollment of about 23,300 which is comparable to V-Tech though I'm not sure how that number breaks down between the university's branch campuses.

Message from President Haas on Virginia Tech

The entire Grand Valley State University community is horrified by the tragic events that occurred yesterday at Virginia Tech. We are saddened by the loss of life and injuries, and we offer our deepest condolences to all at Virginia Tech.

We want the Grand Valley community to know that we have had emergency response plans in place for many years. We test, review and update those plans regularly - we did so most recently after the murder of a student at another Michigan university. The university conducts drills of those plans periodically, often
with the cooperation of other public safety agencies, to look for areas where we can improve. We want also to ensure substantive and timely communication.

Dean of Students Bart Merkle and Student Senate president Frank Foster are working together to send a message of condolence on our behalf to their counterparts at Virginia Tech.

Nothing is more important than the safety and well being of our faculty, staff, students and guests. It will always have my undivided attention.

Thomas J. Haas
President
Grand Valley State University

The student had this to say about it:

"I thought it was quite well-written myself, and was pleasantly surprised to see that our university will actually be sending a personal message of condolence."

This e-mail invokes those magical "plans" we talked about earlier, while also going on to say that they're working on showing their sympathy in something a little more tangible than an e-mail or a press release. And really, what more can you do?

My friend from Findlay tells me their student security workers are having a meeting tonight regarding this. Is this happening anywhere else? E-mail me at billiamforty@hotmail.com

Thanks to the student who mailed me this e-mail! I'm waiting on a few more to come in from some people. E-mail me yours!

University of Findlay e-mails students

Someone forwarded me this today. The President of Student Services e-mailed everyone at the school (about 4,500 students) to tell them to keep the victims in their thoughts and prayers. Findlay is a small university located in Western Ohio.

Compare this simple e-mail to the Fox News Experts reaction.

I'm guessing similar e-mails are going out. Could you e-mail them to me, please at billiamforty@hotmail.com?

From: Dave Emsweller
To:
Subject: Situation at Virginia Tech
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 8:28 PM

To UF Students, Faculty, and Staff:

As many of you may already be aware, news sources are reporting that 31 people lost their life today on the Virginia Tech campus when an armed man opened fire in a residence hall and then in an academic building. Please keep the Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff in your thoughts and prayers as they cope with this tragic event.

Dave

David Emsweller
Vice President for Student Services
The University of Findlay
Findlay, OH 45840

You're the Man Now Dog: Laughing at Tragedy

YTMND.com's users made a few ytmnd's responding to the attacks.

"sad... very sad." Going along with a picture of a student standing at what appears to be a memorial, the page plays the Enya song "Only Time." I kept wating for Yakkity Sax to kick in with the cell phone video comically sped up.

"Virginia Police Surround the Shooter" takes a dig at the shooter being Asian.

"VT was the best day ever" Faces of terrorists hovering over a student's body while a song from Spongebob Squarepants plays.


"Finding Humor in Tragedy" How long until videogames get blamed by anti-game nut Jack Thompson? Uh... 3 p.m. yesterday. "I think this qualifies as a new record..."


"Post Game Carnage Report" Speaking of videogames.

"World of Warcraft Players Have No Compassion" More videogames.

"We should have seen it sooner."