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RSS icon Comments on Re: It's on TV Tonight

1

Well, I went over to SmokingGun and read Cho's little screenplay. Am I missing something? Frankly, I think he was going for a cross between Hamlet and American Beauty, but the actuality is rather lame.

It struck me as a rather a poor effort for someone his age (frankly, my nephew was writing better stuff than this when he was 12); yes, it has some profanity in it; but I'm not really sure what the other kids were sooooo disturbed by. Of course, I wasn't raised in the bible belt, so maybe my cultural radar is off for what would be considered 'scary'.

Posted by Tlazolteotl | April 18, 2007 3:02 PM
2

Hard to imagine that the folks at NBC weren't high-fiving each other when they realized they had this exclusively. And the folks at ABC, CBS, and Fox News are jealous that they're not the preferred news source for deranged lunatics.

Posted by Quoting Oscar Wilde | April 18, 2007 3:11 PM
3

this is not his screenplays. this is reportedly his multimedia manifesto, including pictures, mailed to NBC between the two shootings.

Posted by infrequent | April 18, 2007 3:11 PM
4

Critiquing its literary value is aside from the point. I don't think you have to be "raised in the bible belt" to be "disturbed" by chainsaw dismemberments. Do they happen? Yes. Chainsaw dismemberments do happen. More disconcerting is that I'll never be able to eat a rice krispie treat again.

Not that rice krispie treat didn't already have its sociopathic implications.

Posted by Reverend Foot | April 18, 2007 3:13 PM
5

I find that photo as a header gratuitous, both on NBC's part and as its used in the SLOG.

Posted by Jude Fawley | April 18, 2007 3:13 PM
6

NBC planted the gunman! Finally, this tragedy makes sense.

Posted by Matthew | April 18, 2007 3:14 PM
7

Here come the copycats...

Posted by Explorer | April 18, 2007 3:14 PM
8

I miss Imus.

Posted by DOUG. | April 18, 2007 3:19 PM
9

how bout NO ONE WATCHES?

fuck you, cho.

i want margaret cho to weigh in.

Posted by Max Solomon | April 18, 2007 3:20 PM
10

I've been avoiding this sick story as much as I possibly can, but it's abundantly clear that the mass-killing mass-media 24-hour adventure we call "culture" has been going in this direction. First, we all know that nothing is as entertaining as bloodshed. You need look no futher than your local movie theater or TV news show for evidence of that. Next, we are clearly deep into the growth-spurt phase of the age of self-produced and widely circulated media. And third, after the Sanjaya fiasco, reality TV has been looking for the next twist.

It's the worst thing I can imagine, but this shit in VA is about to spawn a whole new genre of pop culture snuff TV. Just watch.

Posted by Gurldoggie | April 18, 2007 3:26 PM
11

What a lamer. He didn't post the video to YouTube?

Posted by gfish | April 18, 2007 3:26 PM
12

Soooooo... anybody read Fahrenheit 451 lately?

Posted by Gomez | April 18, 2007 3:28 PM
13

That header photo, the insanely bad-ass one with the tomb raider pistol pose, steely gaze, and slightly broken unibrow, reminds me of the chilling futures I predicted for the handful of unloved kids I went to high school with who you just knew were destined for short, nasty, and brutish lives.

I know who I'll be for this year's in-poor-taste Halloween costume contest. I'll need a shredded VT garmet of some kind, though, and lots of kimchi blood....

Posted by jackie treehorn | April 18, 2007 3:28 PM
14

holy shit.

Posted by jamier | April 18, 2007 3:50 PM
15

A prat with an arsenal is still a prat.

Posted by Fnarf | April 18, 2007 4:22 PM
16
Posted by Trevor | April 18, 2007 4:22 PM
17

NBC airing this footage gives the killer more power than he deserves. Whatever his beliefs or rationalizations, the focus should be on his victims. By giving Cho Seung-Hui exactly what he wanted, the media allows him to gain the recognition he desired.

Posted by megan w | April 18, 2007 4:27 PM
18

Am I the only one who finds the photos he took of himself really nauseating? I have watched Law & Order, CSI and true crime shows, but this is physically upsetting. I know the media wets itself when juicy imagery like this comes along, but for once, I wish they had spared us. This is a bit too real.

Posted by if you please | April 18, 2007 4:31 PM
19

So, the moral of the story is, if you want more than 15 minutes of fame and your crazy writings on national TV, just go kill 33 people?

This is so wrong.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 18, 2007 4:39 PM
20

So, will Alex Johnson of MSNBC be Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" tonight?

Posted by Peter | April 18, 2007 4:51 PM
21

This photo of him in action pose with the guns is really not something I want to look at.

Posted by Sally Struthers Lawnchair | April 18, 2007 5:21 PM
22

I miss Anna Nicole Smith. Couldn't she die again or something?

Posted by The CHZA | April 18, 2007 5:51 PM
23

Cho killed 32 people and himself, correct? So could we maybe keep the number to 32? I certainly don't give enough of a shit about that scumbag to include him in the body count.

Posted by keshmeshi | April 18, 2007 5:56 PM
24

I agree very much with #17 and #2. In the video on NBC, Brian Williams says something about not showing all of the video because he doesn't want to make another hero or a martyr -- but that is, indeed, just what he's doing.

It would have been nice if the top brass at NBC had the courage to not air this. But it's all about the ratings, isn't it?

Posted by Nandor | April 18, 2007 6:20 PM
25

In our lifetime those who kill
The newsworld hands them stardom
And these are the ways
On which I was raised
These are the ways
On which I was raised

Posted by Abby | April 18, 2007 7:34 PM
26

Aren't we just giving the killer what he wants if we pay attention to his photos, writing, etc.?

Posted by AB | April 18, 2007 9:30 PM
27

You know, the world is so fucked up I didn't even realize this was a big deal until after a couple days of steady headlines about it. I mean, there's so much death everywhere all the time, plus we don't really know whether or not we're hitting the brakes on carbon emissions soon enough to save life on Earth - but I guess I'm just out of touch.

Posted by Noink | April 18, 2007 11:37 PM
28

@23 - sorry, but God doesn't discriminate amongst victims. So, if she says it's 33 dead by his hand, then it's 33 dead. Even if one is himself.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 18, 2007 11:47 PM
29

I could bear to watch only a few minutes of NBC's nearly gloating coverage of Cho Seung-Hui's pictures and videos, but what I saw made me think, "Oh no. You did this because you're a loser, girls don't like you, and you can't get them to like you."


There will be endless blathering about the effects of video games, anti-depressants, and the availability and proliferation of guns, and some of it will be true. But it seems like many of these mass shootings follow a perceived injustice or insult upon a misfit shooter: the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, being spurned romantically, being outcasts in school, Cho in particular also resented the privileges of the children of the rich.


Unfortunately, rich people aren't going away, people are going to lose jobs, and people are going to get dumped. Until our society figure out how to teach men to be happy even when they don't get their way, and how to have high self esteem without distracting from distress by controlling others, domestic violence, rape, and murder will be pandemic.


Granted, Cho Seung-Hui has a screw loose, you can hear it rattle when he speaks, but he is a bad apple from a rotten tree. To mix my metaphors.

Posted by Diana | April 19, 2007 8:50 AM
30

and up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong while watching how his penis patches got wet at http://www.averagepenis.mysize.ws

Posted by penis patches | April 30, 2007 11:50 AM

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