There’s been a pointed debate over whether NBC, and subsequently other broadcasters, should have blanketed the airwaves with the Virginia Tech shooter’s home movies and photos. What struck me, though, was that NBC apparently insisted on branding what amounted to the killer’s media kit as their own.
If you watch the videos and photos on CNN or ABC or anywhere else but on NBC you’ll see there’s a little NBC network logo affixed to the image, much like you might see on a clip from Meet the Press or any other network show. The mass murderer ‘gave’ it to NBC. So they own it. And any other network that shows it has to credit NBC by showing the NBC logo.
Given the slaughter and agony tied to these tapes, I would have thought the execs at NBC would have freed this questionable material into the public domain rather than claiming intellectual property rights to it as they might any other NBC production.
