Dave Winer has a provocative post up on the Quicktime videos made by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui now in the possession of NBC. “Vlogging comes to mass murder,” Dave writes.
NBC should release all of the videos in Quicktime form as downloads. It’s wrong to withhold them.
They’re sifting through them and deciding what to release and what not to release.
It’s 2007, and it’s a decentralized world. We should all get a chance to see what’s on those videos.
GIven enough time the focus will go on their process, much better to just let it all out now, with no editorial judgement.
I respectfully disagree.
There’s no obligation to put it all out there, and different news organizations are entitled to their own judgments about what is appropriate. Since when does decentralized mean that we expect news organizations to abandon their own moral judgment (however threadbase and episodic it may be)?
Let NBC explain why they withheld stuff, if they end up witholding stuff. Maybe there’s footage in these videos that will only compound the pain of the families of the victims. When you drive by a bad traffic accident, do you insist on your right to see the bloodied passengers?
Dave also refers to Cho’s tapes as “vlogging” but if Cho had wanted us all to see these videos unexpurgated, he could have posted them to youTube, no?
Doc Searls makes some smart points in an email to Dave, noting that Cho didn’t perhaps didn’t post the videos directly to the web because he was in the middle of his killing spree and wanted to be sure that this stuff would be seen after the fact. Doc also argues “If there is nothing to hide here, other than obscenities that cannot be broadcast on TV or radio, there is no reason why NBC should withhold the recordings other than the belief that they own them, and hold them as property. That’s their right; but it does not help the rest of us get clues that might help prevent another tragedy like this one.”
I don’t know. The father in me doesn’t want my kids finding this on the web…the openness advocate in me agrees that we don’t make horrors go away by hiding them. I’m conflicted about this; what do you think?
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