Va. Tech Shootings: All 3 Evening Newscasts Led With “Reaction” & “Outrage”

> Update: 11:26am: “The fact is, by any journalistic standard, every network buried the lead (Gonzales) Thursday night,” a former network correspondent writes to TVNewser. “They all decided the news was about themselves, namely the not-newsworthy fact that the public wants less of this massacre porn. and so, by covering the ‘outrage,’ the networks just get to do more damage…”

Thursday, April 19 leads:

Brian Williams: Good evening. Last night here on this broadcast we aired a small portion of the rants and writings and recordings of a mentally ill Virginia Tech student turned mass murderer. Today, across this country and on that campus, people reacted to what they saw…”

Charles Gibson: “Good evening. There is new outrage, tonight, over the tragedy at Virginia Tech. And it is directed at the media. The words of the virginia tech killer were plastered across newspapers and websites today after they started airing on television last night. Raising questions — do we learn anything, seeing the hate of Seung-Hui Cho? Or do we simply play into his sick fantasies? There’s been intense reaction, on the Virginia Tech campus, among victims’ families, indeed, reaction all across the country…”

Katie Couric: “Hello, everyone. A lot of reaction today to that video message from the Virginia Tech shooter, angry reaction aimed at news outlets, including this one, for airing portions of it. CBS News plans to use this video only on a limited basis and only when we feel it’s necessary to tell the story. Law enforcement is using it in its criminal investigation to try to understand the killer’s motives…”