Network Says It Debated for Hours Whether to Air Shooter's Images

NBC News chief Steve Capus (AP)

The unexpected package from Cho Seung Hui that arrived at NBC News yesterday morning contained both a worldwide scoop and a journalistic dilemma.

After turning over the original documents to federal authorities, NBC News President Steve Capus said last night, he faced a "tough call" in deciding how much to air, if any, of the Virginia Tech gunman's expletive-filled video and 1,800-word letter, along with photos of Cho and his guns and bullets.

"We tried to be sensitive to the families involved and to the investigation," Capus said in an interview. While it is "possible" that some relatives of the 32 students shot to death Monday may say that the network is giving the killer the platform he wanted, "they also may say, 'We want to know why. We need to know what was in his head, what drove him to do this.' This is a portrait of a killer."

Capus said Virginia State Police officials, in a conversation about noon, asked NBC to "hold off" on releasing the material until they had a chance to review the material. The state authorities gave NBC the green light about 4:30, saying it would not jeopardize the probe. The network aired portions of the video and note on "NBC Nightly News" at 6:30.

Anchor Brian Williams told viewers: "We are sensitive to how all of this will be seen by those affected, and we know we are, in effect, airing the words of a murderer here tonight. . . . So much of it is so profane, so downright gross and incomprehensible. We tried to edit carefully for broadcast tonight." The segment was posted on http://msnbc.com.

Former FBI agent Clint Van Zandt told Williams that the mailing was Cho's "ultimate victory. This is the way he's victimizing, further victimizing all of us, by reaching out from the grave and grabbing us and getting our attention and making us listen to his last rambling words and pictures."

Of course, no one forced NBC to broadcast those words and pictures. Capus said network journalists debated for hours what they should make public. "There are some things we haven't shown and words we haven't released that are more appropriate to hold back," he said. "Journalists have a responsibility. We're not just here to pass on in direct form raw video and complete documents."

The Washington Post and New York Times drew both praise and criticism in 1995 after publishing, at the request of federal authorities, a 35,000-word manifesto by the serial killer known as the Unabomber. In this case, with Cho dead by his own hand, critics were questioning last night whether NBC's decision to show the pictures and video might embolden other would-be murderers to seek such notoriety.

Nate Calhoun, a Blacksburg High School senior who lost a close friend in the massacre, came to the campus last night to pay respects to the victims. He blasted the network. "NBC really ticked my last nerves," he said. "The way this university is already struggling with pain, I object to them putting these pictures out like that. It's just not fair."

Kerry Redican, president of the Virginia Tech Faculty Senate, said he was not surprised by what he saw in the video. "This is a cold, calculating sociopath," he said. "He must have had a narcissistic core to him."

Redican said he approved of the NBC decision to air the material: "People are trying to make some sense of this. This showed the whole thing was really planned out."

Staff writer Jerry Markon contributed to this report from Blacksburg.