Ethics in the Cho Video Release

Psychiatrist: Showing Cho's Video Is 'Social Catastrophe'

Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist, had been disappointed in not the media's release of the VT Tech murderer Seung-Hui Cho video, but those who watched it.

The VT Tech student Cho murdered 32 students, injuring many others, and finally sent a chilling video about his motives and reasoning behind the shootings.

He believed that the best thing to do about the aftermath of the horrific murder of 32 (including Cho himself) is not to make him a martyr, but to publicly shame his name. To do this, the general public would have to stop caring for this murderer's motives, pre-strike signs, and his past. Instead, Welner believes that Cho was attempting to become a new "Quentin Tarantino character," and should not recieve the idol Cho has made himself.

Not only would this strike down Cho's name, but also discourage those in the future who are willing to commit murders for the same attention.



My View of this matter...
I feel like this is too strange a story for my reasoning, and I totally want to know where the evidence came from. This individual was so elaborative to make the video, intricately plan the attack, have no trouble taking a 2 hour break in between shootings (maybe security let him do it?), and a Korean-native (in the midst of Korea's nuclear and economic struggle with U.S. government)? This adds up to me that someone else was in on this one. And the fact that we are all pointing fingers at one person is the same thing as pointing all our fingers at Osama Bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attack. Both of them have little evidence of actual identity, motives, or released location of their bodies. Has anyone seen a picture of either of these two after their atrocities? Someone tell me I'm not crazy too.

I do however believe this kid was a sick and disgusting murderer himself, and his name should be removed from the general media airwaves. Cho probably loved the recognition Colombine recieved and wanted to stake his own name... let's not give anyone else an incentive to muder 30+ innocents, eh?

The media will be next on the radar...

Original Article: Browne under fire over Navy stories

This article explains how the Defense Secretary Des Browne didn't shut these servicemen/servicewoman up before they let out their stories to the public. This information could have included weaknesses in our military, but the head of the armed forces didnt do anything until damage was potentially available to the public media.

While it is true that top Navy authorities should be held responsible from allowing the story to be published, the individual servicemen and women fully knew that their stories would gather much public attention or insight on how the military is run when they were being negotiated or released from Iran. This is no different than if one of our military personnel was to indirectly explain to the enemy how defenseless our military system is at what points.

It is also irresponsible to treat this as a money issue and not as a security issue. Some want to claim that the Navy members want to make a few bucks off of a serious armed forces incident. Who cares? If they made 5 cents or retired on 8 billion dollars, it wouldn't matter.

What I'm personally aware of is that this will become an issue on whether the media should be limited to asking for such information. It was never the media's fault... they just wrote it down to continue their business... the servicemen releasing security info should be held under traitorous penalties. People giving security info like this should be legally kicked out of this country, with no citizenship rights or legal ties to the USA.