Comments on The Blogging Curmudgeon: Fear and Loathing on Television

The Cho video could have been aired at a later tim...

2007-04-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

The Cho video could have been aired at a later time (he actually sent a dozen or so Quicktime videos to NBC)--say a month or a few months after the actual shooting? Showing the videos while the tragedy was still unfolding was a whorish grab for ratings, not a move to fulfill some requirement of the story.

I agree that most Americans don't want to see video of our victims in Iraq and elsewhere. Just not good for the ratings. However, DEAD AMERICANS always mean big ratings. Everybody knows American lives are worth far more than the lives of "furriners".

Anyway, it's a bit hard to worship U.S. Marines if you should them shooting a wounded, helpless captive in the head. Oh wait, no it's not...they actually showed that video during the scourging of Fallujah and it didn't dent the "hero" image of the U.S. Marines at all.

America does love its cold-blooded killers, both as heroes and as villains. I think we should change the name of the country to Itchy and Scratchyland, "The Violentest Place on Earth".

Unfortunately, comment moderation has become neces...

2007-04-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, comment moderation has become necessary. I have a stalker or two who wants to post trollish comments, including one with personal information that shouldn't be divulged.

Ah...you're screening the comments now. Interestin...

2007-04-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ah...you're screening the comments now. Interesting. While I don't blame you for the desire to weed out the truly offensive, like David Byron, there's something squirmy about this.

only objection I have with airing the video from C...

2007-04-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

only objection I have with airing the video from Cho is that it was done too soon. I think that the media saturation coverage of the event itself, the requisite bleeding dry of the victims and their families on network and cable talk shows, and most importantly the utter blackout of news from Iraq, when it's been one of the bloodiest weeks of the war, are far more damning than airing Cho's video and reproducing his "manifesto" were. It's all about ratings. To suddenly cry foul and ask where are their morals is pretty naive I think. The world is littered with our victims and we don't see it on the tv. For Christ's sake, we don't even see the coffins of our own dead military, but we'll lap up the feel good convocations and mass hysteria, all the while conveniently missing the real stories within this story, that mental health issues and gun laws are criminally ignored in this country. The underlying message that mentally ill people are evil and not to be trusted. How about writing about that?