rick.baird wrote:
this guy got exactly what he wanted. gift wrapped and delivered with
a nice bow by NBC news. Throughout my adult life, NBC news was
always my viewing choice, mostly out of habit.
I haven't watched any of it, nor do I intend to seek it out to
watch. I have no reason to think it was shown for significant reason
beyond ratings/money.
Yet, I'm first not at all convinced it's a social catastrophe. And
I'm second not convinced it wasn't valuable to show to a wide public
audience. Not much I can say about the first; I'm simply not convinced.
But the second has me wavering. Without actually watching how it was
presented, it's harder to judge. I'm guessing from experience of
watching network news from time to time that it was presented badly.
Probably surrounded somehow with an atmosphere that lent
sensationalism to the whole segment. That in itself leans me to a
negative impression.
In a proper showcase, a segment handled outside of the control of
anyone more interested in ratings/money than in having a valid
positive effect on the audience, handled more by mental health
professionals than by network managers, there is value possible.
(Possible.)
The biggest effect these kinds of presentations can have would be in
educating the general population in clues that might let them
think "Man, that reminds me too much of how Zachariah was last
Friday." (If any 'Zachariah' is subscribed, my apologies. I simply
picked a name we don't see much here.)
How many of us have any real idea what disturbed behavior actually
looks like? ...what words or phrases might indicate trouble is
close? I suspect that the vast majority have nothing but TV script
dialog or movie scenes to compare against.
I don't like the showing of it in the way I figure it was done. But
I sure would like to see some way of getting real info out to people
in general. Having a psychiatrist say to 'watch out for depressed
people who say violent things' isn't enough. Unfortunately, a
ratings booster is certainly not the right alternative.
Tom Liotta
