Peggy Noonan wonders (sorry, the Journal doesn't seem to believe in permalinks for current articles):

The last testament Cho sent to NBC seemed more clear evidence of mental illness--posing with his pistols, big tough gangsta gonna take you out. What is it evidence of when NBC News, a great pillar of the mainstream media, runs the videos and pictures on the nightly news? Brian Williams introduced the Cho collection as "what can only be described as a multi-media manifesto." But it can be described in other ways. "The self-serving meanderings of a crazy, self-indulgent narcissist" is one. But if you called it that, you couldn't lead with it. You couldn't rationalize the decision.

Such pictures are inspiring to the unstable. The minute you saw them, you probably thought what I did: We'll be seeing more of that.

This is the great debate of our time and part of our times sickness.

Reluctantly, since it was on every network and you couldnt miss it on the net I watched that video.

I came away with a profound sense of sadness about NBC news, our cultures descent into media nuttyness and not a bit of concern for the future of The Republic.

You wonder how many "minutes" before this nut launched off on his excersize in madness that he fantasized about people watching this. ..a small person made big in death... because of the evil he perputrated.

What was the purpose of showing this video? Most are to young to remember this but Richard Spect (I think that is how you spell his last name) murdered over the course of an evening an entire roomfull of nurses in I think Chicago...what if he had made a video would we have shown that?

The answer is I guess yes...all to his self aggrandizement and to our shame.

And now every two bit loser who wants to be a "big person" but cannot in life will now figure this is the way to do it in death.

And doubtless we will see more.

With power comes responsiblity...at least in theory.

Robert

Haven't seen any of it, don't need to see any of it.

I find it interesting that on must news websites, all I see are photos of Cho. 33 people died, and the person who gets the fame is the killer, which is exactly what he wanted. So yes, Peggy, I suspect there will be more to see, since it seems to work.

I did not click though to see the video. So, I'm not sure what is going on here. Who needs to see the rantings and ravings of a psychotic madman?

What a fine essay. That woman can write. Makes you wonder how much of Reagan was really Noonan.

I only take issue with her thinking this misbehaviour is the result of degeneration, that there ever was any Golden Age of character and reason. I don't think there was. I don't think NBC is better or worse than the yellow broadsheets of the 1900s or 1800s, and people used to take their kids to see public hangings.

That's just who we are. Not an especially attractive species. We should build cities on the Moon in part so that future archaeologists from Andromeda are so impressed with our technical prowess that our moral qualities are discussed only in the footnotes.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110009962

You click Author Archive and the permalink is used for the link to the piece there. Obscure compared to having a permalink at the top or bottom of the "post" on the main page, but available.

You click Author Archive and the permalink is used for the link to the piece there.

I did that. It wasn't there at the time (that's why I said "current" piece) If it's there now, they probably updated it overnight.