Planet Blacksburg Blog

I don’t want to hear any more about the two-hour window.

Tech administration has been raked over the coals by the media and others over the amount of time it took to alert students to stay indoors.

Information about a suicide note was being leaked all over the internet while the police denied the existence of one. Then all of a sudden, MSNBC gets this snappy package on Wednesday morning from the killer. They claimed to have turned it over to the police, but conveniently had it available for the viewing public later in the day. Was the delay due to the police holding up the video for investigative purposes, or was NBC the reason there were seven hours between the time the video was delivered and the time it aired?

This is why people dont trust the media. When the package airs on television during the six-o’clock news it becomes apparent that the motive for showing it is not to inform, but to garner ratings. I make no assumptions to the contrary and I understand that this is how today’s media environment operates. I fully expect mainstream media to ride this story right into the ground. They’ll uncover every dark secret about the killer and speculate on every detail of his life; tossing question after question out there while offering no real analyses or solutions.

The truth is, for the Hokie Nation the story is not about the killer. It is about telling the story of the victims, their achievements in life and their inspiration in death. It is about the wealth of human talent that was extinguished in one short morning. It is about the triumphs of those who survived the attack and the heroic efforts of those who didn’t. It is about the solidarity of the worldwide community.

We don’t care about the killer. He was a punk coward. A sick, disturbed individual who’s cries for help were not only heard, but answered. He was offered counseling, he was sent away for help, he was on medication. Thousands of people in the country suffer from mental illness in some form or fashion. No one, NO ONE has ever perpetrated this type of heinous act.

Go ahead and show the video. That self-indulgent nonsense sheds little light on the situation. We’ll change the channel.

Go ahead and post the pictures. Posed pictures of an angry little man do not impress us. We’ll look at something else.

Go ahead and do whatever it is you feel the need to do to drive up your ratings and your site hits. As the anger and sorrow subside, so will the morbid interest in the shooter. In time, he will be forgotten.

Call it what you want to call it, but we are not going to devote any more bandwidth to the shooter. NBC did exactly what the killer wanted by airing his message. We refuse to give him that satisfaction.

We at Planet Blacksburg are going to do what the rest of the Hokie Nation is trying so hard to do; we are going to move on.

- Neal Turnage

We at Planet Blacksburg are in a tough spot when it comes to this kind of coverage. As you may already know, there has been a series of shootings on our campus and all of our writers and contributors are students. This makes it extremely difficult to cover the situation from a safe perspective.

We do have a story up. It’s by Suzanne Higgs who was actually locked down in a classroom while the incident was taking place. I think it is a testament to her dedication to journalism that she would find a way to get all the official information to print.

We can only publish what we know for sure, but in the blog I can tell you a little bit more of what we’ve heard. None of this is confirmed or should be treated as gospel. I just want to help you all understand things from our side.

I was fortunate enough to have not made it to campus when the incidents occured. My wife works in Burruss Hall and through some cosmic coincidence she had to fly to Chicago for a business trip. On any other Monday she would have been in that building and I would have been on campus nearby.

Sitting in the Roanoke Airport with my laptop open, I’ve been communicating with fellow students via email, instant messenger and by phone. I’ve heard that as many as 20 people have been killed. According to my wife, one of her co-workers actually saw two students gunned down.

With that high a number of casualties, we do not know if any PB writers or contributors have been hurt, but we pray for all involved.

We at PB will do what we can to keep you updated on the situation as it unfolds.

Neal Turnage