Video: Mary Katharine Ham talks VTech on CNN
posted at 9:15 am on April 23, 2007 by Allahpundit
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From yesterday’s Reliable Sources. She was on with Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine to chat about new-media coverage of the killings, starting with that cell-phone video shot outside Norris Hall while the rampage was going on and ending with evidence about Cho gleaned from sources like Facebook. Shocking omission: the fleeting national furor over wanusmaximus’s LiveJournal page, which was still being touted on Fox News hours after most in the blogosphere knew he wasn’t the suspect.
The Hammer also parts company with Hewitt et al. to say that NBC should indeed have aired the video — but only after a respectful cooling-off period. That’s a well-meaning concession to NBC’s critics, but to me the practical effect seems even crueler, letting the wound heal up a bit only to rip it back open. If you’ve got bad news to break, break it all at once.
Sorry for the bad sync here, incidentally. It’s a glitch on YouTube’s end, so it likely won’t be cured by re-uploading the clip.
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I think MKH will be headed for the big time very soon. She has the total package.
doufree on April 23, 2007 at 9:27 AM
MKH has a myspace page, nice girl. Appears to be very involved with Young Life.
jp on April 23, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Still not sure how it qualified as news. Wait, so the guy who shot 32 people was unpleasant and insane? How about that.
Jim Treacher on April 23, 2007 at 9:41 AM
You can make the same point about Bin Laden, though. “Huh. So he is a fanatic Muslim who wants to destroy the United States. I guess the CIA was right.” I still want to see it.
Allahpundit on April 23, 2007 at 9:46 AM
Thing is,
Videos like this make the net-waves rather quickly anyway.
NBC airing the videos before they go on Youtube, and are then linked here at Hot Air, just means we all see them a few days/weeks sooner.
Lawrence on April 23, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Point taken, Allah. I just think it’s really hard to argue that a news organization gets this kind of news and doesn’t do anything with it. Another thing I should have mentioned is that I don’t think NBC ran a disclaimer before showing it the first time (although they did on their website material.) That seems a common-sense, easy and sensitive step they could have taken. Tricky issue, but they couldn’t have sat on it.
marykatharine on April 23, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Agreed.
budorob on April 23, 2007 at 10:09 AM
You cannot sit on the biggest mass murder news story the only message from the insane gunman
Comeon let get our heads on straight. As far as the pain of the family it is closure to an extent to look in the face of evil and know that person is gone as well and their loved one was indeed an innocent victim.
I feel deeply and strongly for the families all of them, having a daughter about college age its emotiional for me as well especially living overseas in the middle east.
No one should lose a child, no one, my prayers and sympathies go out to them.
NBC did the right thing, they can continue this trend by cutting Olbermann
EricPWJohnson on April 23, 2007 at 10:34 AM
what do you guys think about Mark Steyn’s points in all this?
I think we live in a new and unique age where Information/Images are able to reach people instantly. Its the war component of our enemies, to get on our TV screens and affect our emotions on the issue, same for nutjobs like this VT loon.
jp on April 23, 2007 at 10:42 AM
They could’ve redacted a lot of it from their broadcast, put up links to the video on their website, and come out looking a lot better. Leave the nastiness of the video to those who actively seek it.
James on April 23, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Two days after 9/11? Not me.
Jim Treacher on April 23, 2007 at 10:53 AM
Not much.
Jim Treacher on April 23, 2007 at 10:54 AM
My knee-jerk reaction is to say, “Good God, what was NBC thinking in airing that?” I agree with MKH’s take, clarified by her comment above, though. Warn people it’s coming, give them fair opportunity to hit mute or change the channel, and then spread the news. The only way that we’ll grow from such a tragedy such that we might stop the next one is to know its full extent. To that end, it was NBC’s duty to show it.
Intriguing… NBC “gets it” here, but they can’t seem to get it when it comes to Iraq. Also intriguing… such an argument as presented above shows that, no matter how a media outlet claims to be unbiased, there’s simply no way not to be.
flutejpl on April 23, 2007 at 10:59 AM
MKH. There’s all the proof I need that God exists and knows what He’s doing.
Evolution created that cutie? Not a chance.
Professor Blather on April 23, 2007 at 11:22 AM
You can call what NBC a lot of things – you can even argue that it was a financially wise decision, or a virtual necessity from a business and media standpoint – but to call it the “right thing” is so laughable I wouldn’t even know where to start.
I mean, besides laughing.
It was as far from “right” as you can possibly get. I can say with absolute certainty that the word “right” never even occurred to them.
Right? Heh. As if.
Professor Blather on April 23, 2007 at 11:25 AM
I keep tying the NBC decision to air Cho’s tapes back to Osama – Whenever he releases a video/audio tape, the media publicizes it without any concern to whether it may contain coded messages to Islamists, and most of us don’t complain about it either, probably because we all want Osama’s fascistic rants to be on the record and widely disseminated.
The obvious difference here is that Cho’s dead, while Osama may still be alive. Here’s something that just popped into my head – maybe we’re more willing to excuse the media for airing Osama’s diatribes because when we finally do assassinate him in some Pakastani cave, and violate Pakistan’s sovereignty when we do it, we can say “Hey, it’s not like he didn’t deserve it.”
Airing Cho’s tapes post-mortem doesn’t have any of that “we’ll get you some day” drama attached to it. It’s just a matter of prurient interest.
Anyway, that’s just off the top of my head.
Enrique on April 23, 2007 at 11:25 AM
I’d like to see the whole thing, if nothing less than to see what NBC decided to air vs what not to air.
- The Cat
MirCat on April 23, 2007 at 11:48 AM
When I first heard about NBC airing the video/etc, I was highly upset. How *dare* they show this psycho’s rantings. And imagine how the families felt when they saw this?
But then I started thinking about 9/11. It seems that the major networks have shied away anymore from showing the towers’ collapse, a decision which I don’t agree with.
So how can it bother me that the tower collapse is *not* shown, yet the Cho rantings *are* shown? So reluctantly, I guess NBC made the correct decision.
Regardless, though, I agree with doufree; MKH is going places. She comes across very well on camera, is definitely knowledgable, and is able to articulate her thoughts without sounding like she’s got a chip on her shoulder.
dalewalt on April 23, 2007 at 12:24 PM
I think Steyn is spot on.
Viper1 on April 23, 2007 at 12:37 PM
So do I. And I think the reaction to Steyn’s comments proved his point better than his essay did.
A look at history suggests that most other eras would have understood his point perfectly. We’ve so adopted a culture of passivity that even conservatives defend it.
Nobody is slamming the victims. But it is fact that in our culture, we are trained not to get involved. To look the other way. Kitty Genovese. Google it.
In other cultures, in our past – and most interestingly, in the very cultures we seem to most admire – last Monday morning would have been very different. Or, at least, the reaction would have been different.
I find it fascinating that we live in a culture that turns a movie like “300″ into a phenomenon – yet to suggest that standing and fighting IN REAL LIFE isn’t a bad idea gets soundly criticized, even by conservatives.
Go figure.
Professor Blather on April 23, 2007 at 1:31 PM
*I* want to know all. *I* want to see the clips in their entirety. I DON’T want the media censoring things, unless there are brains on the wall, that’s something that doesn’t need to be shown, but when a creep like this goes on a rampage — really, tell us what he was thinking, by showing us what he said.
Don’t HIDE INFORMATION!
Rick Donaldson on April 23, 2007 at 1:51 PM
I believe that NBC thought about news morals somewhat less than they did about news $.
They were then reminded of responsible reporting shortly after the rush to expose and then sell the rights to other outlets.
I still say that in recompense for the pain NBC has caused that they have a responsibility to donate to the victims and the victims families.
Speakup on April 23, 2007 at 1:54 PM
Yeah, she’s so much more than a political commentator though she’s VERY good at that too. She genuinely cares about people and it shows in her work and in her personal life as her pics on her myspace page shows. Her celebrity status has NOT gone to her head and I doubt it ever will.
Yakko77 on April 23, 2007 at 10:15 PM
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