Last week, the Poynter Institute, a prominent voice in media ethics, published an e-mail it received from NBC News President Steve Capus describing the process NBC undertook after the network received a package from Cho Seung-Hui, the student responsible for the deaths of 32 Virginia Tech students. Before airing the video clips and photographs Cho sent, Capus said NBC consulted with Virginia law authorities and discussed internally for over seven and a half hours about what material to release to the public. After NBC aired the footage, other major news networks almost immediately picked up on it and started airing the images, too.