NBC Did the Right Thing

NBC is taking heat for broadcasting Seung Cho’s photos and videos. As scoops go, the package Cho sent them is about as good as it gets. But the dilemma was obvious. Do you present the ravings of a homicidal madman to population of the planet, knowing full well that you are then the principal agent for creating new, permanent, perverse iconography? (Cho’s movie-poster pose with two guns in out-stretched arms has already joined the hooded figures of Abu Ghraib in the 21st century Hall of Infamy.)

Despite my queasiness with NBC and MSNBC’s constant hyping of “exclusive”, and the titillating promise of “more tomorrow on ‘Today’”, (I didn’t watch), they did the right thing, at least in that we don’t know for the moment what else was in Cho’s package that they decided not to air.

News organizations are constantly balancing their mission to present news “without fear or favor” with their role as a cultural citizen, which very much involves the desire not to be accused of reckless opportunism, exploitation and smut peddling, all of which could effect shareholder value. The far safer path is always a sin of omission, (e.g.) play “patriot” during the run up to war by not aggressively challenging the dubious assertions of a popular President.

But there is something of value in Cho’s ravings, in that the public very much wants to know, “Why?” Clearly he’s deranged. But from what? Depression? Childhood abuse? Cultural influences? All of the above? Obviously anyone who goes to the trouble of producing something like this is begging for understanding. Pity, too. But at some basic level understanding.

A case can be made that broadcasting selections of this package will have a beneficial “wisdom of crowds” effect, in that as Cho’s misanthropy plays and plays and filters through culture the greater “we” will acquire a better understanding of him and his “type” other than just as loner-lunatics. We now live in a “wiki” world, where millions of brains can fix on something like this and thrash it vigorously for quite a long time. There have been quantitative and qualitative changes to that even since Columbine. Its worth betting than the overall effect of all that attention and analysis can and will be positive.

Is it possible other deranged, depressed loners will take a cue from Cho’s videos? Sure, but God knows they’ve got plenty of imagery and behavior to ape as it is, and not much of it will come with as much earnest debate over the need to better ID and respond to psychopathic tendencies.

I doubt NBC will ever cop to the social engineering aspects of this. They’ll prefer to stick with “news value” and let the usual cultural psychologists and pundits take it from there. But — their hype withstanding — the balance of their judgment, thus far, was appropriate.

That aside, my reactions to this episode, and fodder for debate, are these:

1: How about background checks long enough and thorough enough to detect psychological red flags as acute as Cho’s, whether the purchase goes through a gun dealer or a gun show?

2: What possible rationale is there for 15-round clips in a concealable weapon?

3: If we’re so gutless we don’t dare ever challenge NRA gun orthodoxy with Japanese or British-style gun laws, how about a $5 per round tax on bullets? How many depressed paranoids have an extra $1000 for a killing spree?

(The tax on bullets idea I think should be credited to Chris Rock.)