Inside Google asks whether Google should allow media companies and others to buy Google Ads for searches relating to the Mass Murder in Virginia. Are the news orgs that desperate for the eyeballs of onliners?
Dave Winer has two posts on the mass murder (One titled Vlogging Comes to Mass Murder” and the other entitled “ChoTV Day2”) and thinks that the videos sent to NBC should be uploaded and left for everyone to see and do with them what they will. Some have argued about copycats but I’d more worry that this is just another form of trolling. The guy wanted attention and spreading the videos will do that for him. Attention whore has already got enough publicity. Doc Searls also says release the videos. Would he link to blog posts that had mockup pics of Kathy Sierra being murdered? Would he tell Kathy to upload the abusive pics and messages if they were posted to her?
Jeff Jarvis also supports their release and has some very good reasoning but I don’t think releasing the videos will encourage people to report potential rampage murderers, I think that lesson will be learned without them. We’ve seen the degrees of stupidity and insanity some people go to for attention, will this not just reinforce that fact that trolls with guns will be rewarded with the attention they want?
Meanwhile, isn’t someone in RTE being awfully clever with their “Sororicide jury breaks for weekend“. I’m not sure are murder cases the best place to show off your word of the day skills, though they seem to be fantastic sources for pullitzers and for best-selling non-fiction books.
Next time it won’t matter what the MSM thinks about such videos – what was to have stopped this murderer from uploading videos himself?
When attention is one of the factors involved in such murder cases, why are we so afraid of limiting that freedom? We protect victims of sex-crimes (sometimes) – so why can’t we protect victims and potential future victims of killers who have manifestos?
Even the publishing of the Unabombers’ mad diatribe was only done to catch him. A society with no controls whatsoever on freedoms isn’t exactly a civilisation
Agree with you 100% on this Damien, that demented asshole was plainly looking for attention, and the media’s gross inability to stop themselves feeding on it is more responsible for these losers than any video game that other demented asshole Jack Thomson would like to throw in people’s faces.
I don’t see the problem with using the word ‘sororicide’ in the news headline – it’s not like they’re making a pun or anything. Sororicide is the correct word – nobody bats an eyelid when they talk about patricide or matricide. I see that RTE have changed the headline though.
James, it is the right word but I think it was just some hack showing off and it was the first time ths word was used in all the RTE coverage. It does seem part of some ongoing odd editorial decisions as noted here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055081152
I have noticed that a few times recently… RTE also tend to show up several times in my feedreader with slightly different versions of the same post. I don’t know why it shows up as a new entry, but I get to see all the changes they make, for example
becomes
Perhaps they’ve got some new staff who haven’t got the hang of that whole proof-reading thing yet.