OOPSY, LET ME FIX THIS!!
shakran, I'm afraid I flucked up your post, but I'm going to see if I can fix it, I'm so sorry.
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I don't have a problem with them covering the memorial service - it can be cathartic to people who are shocked, saddened, and mourning over this event, yet who cannot for whatever reason be at the memorial themselves. To people who don't need that catharsis, well, they don't have to watch.
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Well, shall I be so bold as to suggest that people would not be so shocked, saddened and mourning if they weren't immersed in the coverage of this story. And let's not equate this with being insensitive, please. I don't think I am insensitive. In fact, I can speculate, that if it were one of my children who died at VT that day, I would be distressed and demoralized at the spectacle being made of it. I haven't watched a single second of tv news coverage of this incident, but I know what is happening. Because I used to be one of those people glued to the tv, watching them repeat the same information again and again, waiting for the next "breaking" tidbit of information.
If you take a break from watching CNN or FOX or any other 24 hour news network for six months and then go back and watch it again with fresh eyes, you'll be surprised at how distasteful it seems to you. I can almost guarantee it.
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I have covered enough funerals (especially lately with the soldier deaths) and have gotten enough viewer mail in response to it to know that people who can't make it to services like this appreciate and I will go so far as to say even NEED us to bring them there through their TV set.
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I think this is a little different. Especially considering that we get next to no news coverage about the deaths of our military personnel in Iraq and those who are thankful to see it, probably have to go out of their way to find out anything about them at all.
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I also disagree that we don't need to know as much about this man as possible. Only by understanding who he was and why he did it can we hope to prevent such an event in the future. We cannot close our eyes and ears to his obvious pain and/or derangement just because we're angry with him.
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I don't think it's closing our eyes to it. The average citizen out there is not a criminal profiler. The people to whom the information is truly useful will get it. Everyone else is just ogling.
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Let's think about this folks. This man killed 31 people before shooting himself. We obviously can't physically prevent this - we can't lock the entire population of the country up in strait jackets to prevent someone from going berserk. Only if we understand the factors leading up to such a crime can we hope to prevent it. Our motive for knowing what we can about him is not, or at least should not be, prurient interest in the deranged, but passionate interest in self preservation.
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I agree, but I don't think the average citizen should be taking it on themselves to decipher personalities and decide whether someone is a danger or not. That's a pretty slippery slope in my mind.