ahh, cable news

I usually don’t watch CNN unless I’m drunk and feel like making fun of Nancy Grace. But last night, I tuned into Anderson Cooper 360 and caught a classic two-minute exchange, exposing the sensationalism, irresponsibility and hypocrisy of popular news media. I couldn’t find a clip on youtube or CNN, so you’ll have to bear with me….

I’m going to insert my blue commentary into the transcript.
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COOPER: Greg, who is the "you" he's referring to? Is it just society as a whole?

GREGG MCCRARY, FORMER FBI PROFILER [McCrary is shown in one of those itty bitty pundit boxes in the corner of the television screen, all the while violent images of Cho are flashing on the screen in quick succession]: Yes, whoever he has perceived has wronged him. I would like to make a point about this, because there's a problem. And I'm concerned about the copycat factor…. My concern is by repeatedly playing these videos and showing these photos over and over again, we're energizing some other killer out there, somebody who is on the edge, who is on the verge, and sees this as a way to go. Just as this guy identified with the Columbine shooters, somebody's going to identify with this guy. And I think it's -- the responsible thing to do is to back off on showing these videos and these pictures. [Um, the images are still flashing]. You can certainly report the story and that needs to be done, but I think the danger here is that we're energizing some other killer and that we may have some other events that follow in the wake of this.

COOPER [Cooper is now in the itty bitty box, obviously uneasy because, guess what, the images are still flashing]: Well, Kris, Gregg raises an excellent point and one that we've debated a lot here. In the video he also references Dylan Klebold, as if he learned lessons from watching what happened in Columbine. [Images stop, Cooper is in full screen, *snap]. And he talks about -- Cho, talks about himself inspiring future generations of people to do similar acts.
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Don't worry, 30 seconds later, Cooper thanked McCrary for being on the air and cued CNN to BEGIN VIDEOTAPE.