Perhaps Our Darkest Media Moment? (Updated)

I would like to personally thank Dale Larson, the publisher of the Bucks County Courier Times, for filling up this morning's front page with photos of the lone shooter (as far as we know, hopefully) in the Virginia Tech massacre. This life form is shown in combat poses aiming the guns he used to conduct the worst mass slaughter seen in this country in nearly 80 years.

We have a young child growing up in our house, Mr. Larson. We had to hide the newspaper from his sight so it wouldn't scare him. Doesn't that make you proud?

Of course, the Courier Times is hardly blameless in this matter. CNN and other sites I'm sure have photos plastered all over the place from Cho Seung-Hui that he sent to NBC before he offed himself along with all of the other victims of his crimes on Monday.

When NBC determined what was contained in the package, it should have been sealed and turned over in its entirety to the Virginia State police as evidence in an ongoing murder investigation.

Another lifetime ago as a journalism student at Temple University, I enrolled in a class called "Law and Ethics in Mass Communications." I can't recall back that far to determine what our instructor would say about this now, but at the risk of patting myself on the back, I believe he would echo what I just said.

Of course, there were standards back then, and journalism was respected and practiced as a craft (and this was the rule, not the exception). But in this day and age, I find I must remember to remind myself that maintaining high ratings to generate the highest possible ad revenue easily trumps any standards of decency and common sense.

And no, I'm not going to publicize this murdering animal with a photo accompanying this post.

Update 1: Finally, a person on TV who makes sense on this story!

Update 2: My bad; the New York Times reports the following...

(Upon receiving the package) NBC quickly contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state police in Virginia. Officials from the New York field office of the F.B.I. went to Rockefeller Center to pick up the originals.

And by the way, Brian Williams, he of this post, is quoted as follows...

“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said.

Yeah, but you went ahead anyway, didn't you? You can't blame bloggers for this one!