WA****NGTON (Reuters) - Some family members of the victims killed at
Virginia
Tech university canceled interviews with NBC on Thursday because the
television network aired video and photographs of the killer it received
in
the mail.
Police handling the investigation into the shooting also expressed
disappointment at the airing of the images and rants by Cho Seung-Hui, who
killed 32 people and then himself in the worst shooting rampage in modern
U.S. history.
"We had planned to speak to some family members of victims this morning
but
they canceled their appearances because they were very upset with NBC for
airing the images," said NBC "Today" morning program co-host Meredith
Vieira.
Cho, a student from South Korea mailed photographs of himself posing with
the guns he bought and video railing against rich kids and debauchery. The
package to NBC News was mailed after he killed his first two victims on
Monday morning but before he cut down 30 more people in classrooms.
While NBC acknowledged that the material from Cho were likely devastating
to
the victims' families and that its news division was split over whether to
air the material, NBC News President Steve Capus defended the decision to
do
so, arguing it only showed a small amount of the images they received.
"This is I think as close as we will ever come to being inside of the mind
of a killer, and I thought that it needed to be released," he said on
MSNBC.
"Pretty much every single news organization all around the world has made
the same decision, that it was appropriate to release this information."
NBC said it contacted authorities as soon as it received the package on
Wednesday.
Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said at a
news
conference on Thursday investigators appreciated NBC's cooperation.
However, he added, "We're rather disappointed in the editorial decision to
broadcast these disturbing images."
Flaherty said the package had turned out to yield little that
investigators
did not already know.
NBC is owned by General Electric Co.
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