Shooting At Virginia Tech: Day Two (Tuesday's Show)

Hi everyone. We've got John King anchoring for us again because Anderson is apparently still stuck in limbo. I guess it takes two days to travel from Afghanistan to the states. That must be one frustrated reporter. I still can't quite believe he turned right around. It seems like a crazy decision. But whatever. It does, however, beg the question: Is the most immediate always the most important? Last week Don Imus was the most important thing in the world, now it's as if he never existed.

I've been having some difficulty watching a lot of the television coverage (specifically cable) of the shooting because quite frankly it's making me feel a little dirty. The tasteless graphics. The tragedy theme music. It's a massacre packaged for a viewing audience. It's obvious a lot of the students want to tell their stories and they should definitely get the opportunity, but I'm sure many just want to be left alone. I can't imagine what the media circus must look like. CNN alone apparently has 120 people there. And over and over again we're told that this is the worst shooting in US history. Now obviously that's true, but should people really be making such a big deal about that fact? What if there are copycats? And I'd rather not give the next wacko any motivation to break the record.

As you've probably guessed by now I'm not doing a regular review. I don't know why I thought coverage might be anywhere near normal today. After all, I clearly remember the Columbine coverage still going strong three days after the shooting happened. So this is going to go on a while. Plus information is still coming to light and other information is changing. For example, yesterday we were told that we shouldn't compare this shooting to Columbine because the shooters were nothing alike. Today we learn that-scratch that-we should totally compare the two shootings because they were a lot alike. The shooter was actually a South Korean student at Virginia Tech named Cho Seung-Hui who had been in the country since he was eight, and not a Chinese National as some had reported. It seems he was a loner. Shocking I know.

A majority of 360's coverage tonight was an EXCLUSIVE interview Gary Tuchman did with Cho's roommates. In this EXCLUSIVE interview we learn that Cho was a pretty weird and messed up guy who stalked girls and caused people to actually notify the authorities. Gary's EXCLUSIVE interview also informs us that Cho hardly ever talked and had an imaginary girlfriend. Did I mention the interview was EXCLUSIVE? I wouldn't want to shortchange CNN in their sole claim over a part of a, you know, tragedy. Okay that lack of tact aside, I actually thought Gary did a really good job. Though I am a bit biased. I loves me the Gary. So what else do we learn about this mass murderer? Well, it seems he was a big fan of the song "Shine Down" from Collective Soul. Apparently poor Collective Soul is the new (or would that be old?) Marilyn Manson.

One thing that bugged me about this interview is that they nickpicked this guy's life apart. Don't think I mean that in sympathy to the shooter; I'd just like to point out that if you look at anyone that closely they're going to look crazy. When these things happen we always are looking for a reason. Sometimes I think there isn't a reason and I'd hate for any of the freaky little irrelevant things he did (like leaving the lights on at bedtime) to suddenly become warning signs or whatever. Now the stalking? That was definitely something to be concerned about. Big red flag there. But sometimes quiet kids are just quiet.

Another thing we learned about Cho is that he wrote plays. Very bad and disturbing plays. So disturbing in fact that the professor pulled him out of class. Obviously she was right in that this guy was definitely dangerous, but I'm trying to decide how I feel about the overall idea of scrutinizing people's writing. People write disturbing things all the time and they don't go out and kill 32 people. Hell, I remember reading a story in my college writing class in which a whole extended family of children was abused and/or murdered-each in a different and twisted way. And this was in an anthology. I myself write fiction and have been known to kill a character or several, though not all violently. Creative writing is suppose to be, well, creative. I really hope there's not going to be a chilling effect on what people write because they're afraid of being referred for counseling now.

Ultimately, hindsight is 20/20. A terrible thing happened. Could it have been prevented? Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes bad things just happen. However, we're wired to need a reason. Because reasons make us feel safer. If there's a reason we can stop it from happening again. And maybe this will cause schools to put more precautions into place that really do stop the next school shooting. Of course that will be of no help when the next big shooting is in a mall. Or in a park. Or...you get the picture. For now we have to sit though all the "experts" who are unapologically certain about what was going on in Cho's head and his motivations for doing what he did. In reality, only one person can ever know that. And he's dead. So now we're left with that unanswerable question we're always left with: why?

I'll post something at my usual time on Thursday evening, but whether it's an indepth review or not remains to be seen. Thoughts on the whole situation?