Wait! Don't Mickey and Mallory Always Leave One Person Alive to Tell the Tale?

Producer/blogger Jane Hamsher says of Cho's tapes:

I remember during Columbine there were measures taken to assure that the gunmen's videos and writings didn't get released to the public, and that they did not become cult heros as a result of their actions. It seemed like a bit of decency amidst the mayhem. I really don't know what's to be gained journalistically by broadcasting the killer's videos other than a ratings bonanza, but it seems quite ghoulish.

Byron York, who's usually a master at plucking icky things from the blogosphere, says:

Hamsher was a Hollywood producer before she began blogging. Her best-known credit was Natural Born Killers.

York clearly means this as a gotcha—take that, Hollywood exploitation junkie Jane Hamsher! But wasn't the self-important point of Natural Born Killers that the media created serial killers by slathering them with attention? It was!

Journalist Wayne Gale (Downey) hosts a show called 'American Maniacs', profiling serial killers in a blatantly sensationalist way. Various clips of his program on Mickey and Mallory are shown, with Gale sounding outraged as he details the pair's crimes, although off-air he clearly regards their crimes as a fantastic way of boosting his show's ratings. It is Gale who is mostly responsible for elevating Mickey and Mallory into heroes, with his show featuring interviews with people expressing their admiration for the mass-killers as if they were film stars.

Makes it a little odd that Hamsher was so dedicated to beating Joe Lieberman, actually. This is a fairly Liebermanesque point.