[Infowarrior] - Blame the Internet for VT

[Richard Forno]

I've seen a bunch of these type of stories in recent days........why is the
media making SUCH a big deal that the VT shooter purchased his ammo clips
via Ebay?   What if he'd done his killings with a set of Ginsu knives bought
at Bed Bath and Beyond? Would they cover it equally as frantically as they
are Ebay?  Or would they cover it so breathlessly only if he bought the
knives at BBB's website instead of a physical store?

The same thing about using a cellphone to communicate.  Is that REALLY
newsworthy? Does using a cellphone make a bad person's actions worse? It's
like the mere mention of the Internet or IT adds a higher degree of
severeity to a crime --- purely sensational fluff at its worst.

The shooter deserves no sympathy.  But IMO neither does bad reporting.

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=39670

> Virginia Tech killer purchased ammunition clips on eBay
> Posted by Emil Protalinski on 22 April 2007 - 20:09 · 35 comments & 2330 views
> A spokesman for eBay confirmed that the Virginia Tech killer used the handle
> Blazers5505 on the auction site to buy two 10-round magazines for the Walther
> P22 ­ one of two handguns used in the massacre of 32 people. The clips were
> bought March 22 from a gun shop in Idaho. His eBay rating was a superb 98.5%:
> only one person gave him a negative rating. The site says the person has had
> an account since January 2004. Seung-Hui Cho also sold several books with
> violent themes, tickets to Hokies football games, and a graphics calculator
> that contained several games. The eBay material is part of investigators'
> efforts to pore through electronic records for a hint as to what drove the man
> to go on shooting rampage.

< - >