Planetblacksburg is the student run blog at Virginia Tech where recently Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 students and staff before killing himself. It was a tragic event. However, just when the European Union is making holocaust denial a criminal offence across Member States, it does not seem appropriate for students in the media to attempt to rewrite history by not mentioning Cho Seung-Hui's name on their blog anymore. America makes such a play on its constitution and the right to freedom of expression. This is how the editor made the announcement:
"Editor’s Note: This is one of the final articles planetblacksburg.com will publish in regards to Cho Seung-Hui. He has dishonored the special community that is Virginia Tech. After Wednesday, April 18, 2007, his name will not be mentioned again by this student media organization".
It is a shame that censorship of this nature is brought into play. I think this is one of the situations where it is better to adopt a Lest We Forget stance than lets not mention his name. It is the kind of position more likely to be taken in a primary school or kindergarten rather than an institution preparing teenagers for adulthood. I hope that the editor rethinks this position and that it is better to come to terms with it than try and run away from it.
UPDATE: It would appear that Virginia Tech has turned into Hogwarts school according to this commenter on the planetblacksburg blog ""We said the killer's name will not be mentioned again on our website." Sounds like you kids have read the Harry Potter books a few too many times. It's a bit like "He who's name cannot be spoken." Don't let fear take over".
Posted by Sidney | April 20, 2007 12:22 PM
6 comments:
What? I don't see the big deal, is that not their freedom of speech to not mention his name? They are trying to heal and mentioning it on a schoolwide paper immediately after the tragedy doesn't help anything. Just because they're saying they won't write it on that paper anymore doesn't mean that Cho will be erased from VA Tech's history. That's like saying the Holocaust never happened, and no one will forget what happened at VA Tech even if they wanted to.
No one talks about the victims nearly as much as the killer. The guy was a self-absorbed attention whore who got what he wanted from the big time media. He wanted to be the big man on campus and he finally got his wish.
NBC 's approach should have been "we have seen the videos and there is nothing that can explain him so out of deference to the VT family we turn it over to the authorities and will not air it." Instead they went for the money...just like they did when they fired Imus. They disgust me.
Planet Blacksburgh's refusing to say his name is not censorship; rather, it is an exercise in not giving him what he wanted...publicity. His little manifesto was a self-centered PR stunt trying to justify actions he clearly planned out over time. I back them up wholeheartedly in keeping his PR campaign going.
Anonymous: Everyone has the right not to mention his name individually, its the editor's decision in question here. For example, if a student wished to write a serious piece on the event he or she would be constrained by this rule of censorship.
navi8eer: I agree, that his act did make him the centre of attention. But, its a bit self defeating because he is not around anymore to enjoy the limelight. Also, that the media do tend to focus more on the perpetrator rather than the victims. I don't see anything wrong in NBC showing the video, it was newsworthy and they did have the exclusive after all. I couldn't see what all the fuss was about Imus, but I did see references to the story on Gingersnaps blog. And the pressure just kept on building up until it was easier to let him go.
Wahine at Jailhouse Lawyer,
We at planetblacksburg.com will continue to report on these events, just as we will continue to report on "the killer."
We took a largely symbolic stand in the face of an extremely disturbing turn of events this week. It was our way of taking back some sort of control from the killer.
Again, a symbolic gesture, not taken to meet the approval of the Poynter Institute, but taken to address the violent injury to our community.
Thank you for your considerate thoughts and observations.
As I was working with my students to cover this event, as I listened to the stories of the various people who tried to help him or report him or deal with his strange behavior, I came to understand that we are a culture almost obsessed with the individual, yet possessed of little regard for the group.
I have spent my own life often glorifying the individual.
Thus our culture has allowed this one person to do tremendous harm to a group I hold dear. I am not a drenched-in-maroon-and-orange Hokie. The group I hold dear is this community of students and faculty, even this state.
I can't help but observe that we are a culture also at war with another culture that holds beliefs diametrically opposite of ours. Radical Islam seems to me to be a culture that holds tremendous value for the group and almost none for the individual.
In the midst of these dark days, our group has made its decision to not allow the killer the control he desires. At the same time, we seek to move forward, seeking a stronger sense of balance.
After all, the group is what many of my students prize the most, that sense of belonging they have found in Blacksburg.
Sincerely,
Roland Lazenby
Journalism Instructor
Faculty Adviser/Co-Founder/planetblacksburg.com
Posted by roland lazenby
There is some strange parallel here between the social isolation that Cho Seung Hui experienced in life, and this decision.
Personally I find it uncomfortable, and wonder if this is, a mechanism by which the greater community distances itself from any responsibility. Didn't someone once write, "No man is an island", we are all connected to our fellow human beings.
Somehow I think this tradgedy occured because one individual didn't feel "included", and it seems from information becoming available that he was also "excluded" because he was seen as "different".
And the other factor in this terrible event, is that without easy access to firearms, he would not have been able to kill people. Also what were those who knew he was mentally unstable doing to help and support him?
What will denying his existence do for those he killed?
ainelivia
It was the poet John Donne who once said "No man is an island entirely unto himself".
Yes, if other people were not so busy living their own lives and brought him into the fold, he may well have expressed his discontent in some other more acceptable way and this tragedy might have been averted.
Denying his existence will serve no purpose.
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