VT

by Lauren Mulkern

On Monday 4/16/07, a student at Virginia Tech. murdered a total of 27 students and 5 teachers. This student was originally from South Korea and moved to the U.S. due to financial difficulty in South Korea. Classmates of this student mentioned that he was a very quite man.
ON the day of the massacre, he shot two students two hours before killing the other 30 people. During this two hour period, he prepared a package of photos and a video. Also in this NBC studio was a written statement. NBC released these disturbing photos, videos, and statements to the public.
The decision that NBC made to release items from this package, sparked a controversy. People are now arguing if this was the right thing to do.
The ultimate purpose of the newspaper/news studio is to make a positive change. Releasing devastating photos, videos, and statements to the public is a positive change? Personally, I believe that releasing photos that have guns pointing at you is horrific. Why does something that was so tragic to many people have to have things to show you what the 32 victims went through? These things show what the victims were looking at before the passed away.
On 4/19/07, I walked into a store to purchase the Boston Herald and Patriot Ledger. As soon as I looked at the newsstand, I was horrified. I had multiple guns pointing right at me. Of course they were not literally there but it was still horrifying. The Boston Herald decided to send a photo from the package with the murderer pointing a gun right at the camera on the front page. I personally don’t see the positive change in this situation. All I see is terrible images. NBC should have spent more time considering the consequences of releasing packages.