Media’s handling of gunman’s images

Re “Gunman’s angry diatribe mailed between attacks,” April 19

I have to admit, waking up this morning, I was a bit worried about seeing the image of the Virginia Tech gunman brandishing his murder weapons, blown up on your front page. I pictured riding on the train this morning and seeing all the people who usually read your paper holding up the same image that probably brought even more pain to those who already had heartache from this tragedy. Although the picture was on the front page, I was pleased to see that it was minimized and placed on the bottom half of the page. Thank you for showing the photo of grieving human beings comforting one another rather than blowing up the photo of this soulless, lunatic coward.

RICKY QUINONES

West Covina

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I wish the media would refrain from showing excerpts from the shooter’s video. Media exposure like this is why many killers decide to act out. I also heard an expert on school shootings say that constant media emphasis on the “record” nature of killings (i.e., the worst school shooting in U.S. history) encourages other unbalanced individuals to want to break the record. Have we learned nothing from past shootings?

FRANCES ROUSE

Sierra Madre

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Re “Gunman handed NBC an exclusive and a quandary,” April 19

As shocking as Seung-hui Cho’s DVD was, NBC’s decision to air it was even more shocking. This heartless decision only adds to the immeasurable pain and suffering of the families affected by this horrible tragedy and gives the killer what he wanted most: immortality. It’s one thing for a video to appear on YouTube, but when the major news organizations embrace it and air it over and over, the killer achieves exactly the immortality he was looking for. The media have a moral obligation to consider the effect of their actions seriously, but once again the need to boost ratings trumps good judgment. The families deserve an immediate public apology, and the major news organizations should do the right thing and stop disrespecting them by airing it.

JAMES MADDOX

Los Angeles