I am so fucking pissed right now, just outraged that NBC and the rest of the news media granted the parting wish of a fucking mass-murderer by airing portions of his “multi-media manifesto.” The front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader shows this killer posing for the camera with guns drawn. The MSNBC website features a slideshow where you can check out different poses of this man pointing his gun at the camera, poses that undoubtedly give you a victim’s eye view of the actual murders of thirty two people.
Shame on you fucking bastards. You grabbed some high ratings I’m sure. I bet Dodge sold some more SUV’s. But what about the Virginia Tech student who may have been waking up in a hospital room, nursing fresh bullet wounds and struggling in vain to get the terrifying visions out of his mind for a just a moment, what about when that victim goes to check his hotmail account and sees this fucking slideshow of murderous poses taken by and of his attacker? Shame on you NBC, and all the rest of you profit-hungry scum-suckers, for re-traumatizing the victims and victims’ families yet again.
The Columbine killers were this guy’s martyrs and heroes, and now – thanks to these news outlets – there are photos, video clips, and an inflammatory manifesto out there on the world wide web to inspire other troubled, narcissistic wannabes looking for a way to have their voices heard, their faces seen, and their ugliest intentions unleashed.
Bill O’Reilly from Fox News defended his decision to run the tape, arguing that doing so served the greater good by shocking and thereby hopefully mobilizing people to take political and social action to prevent any further acts of mass murder. No way, Bill. We were already shocked. Thirty-two people gunned down in cold blood was enough to mobilize us. Letting us know he sent the package to NBC and vaguely describing what was in it – that’s all anybody needed to know. Airing the tape, showing the photos, and reading from the manifesto – that served only to line some people’s pockets and needlessly add to the suffering of others who have suffered enough already.
Shame on you. Shame on all of us. If the media was interested in helping with the healing process, if they were interested in telling a compelling story, they could have spent their entire newscasts or filled their front pages telling the story of Liviu Librescu, the 76-year-old Jewish-Romanian lecturer and Holocaust survivor who pressed himself against the door of a classroom while shots were being fired, giving his life so that his students could climb out of the windows to safety.
Show the world Liviu Librescu’s manifesto.
Liviu Librescu
