There's been a lot of debate over whether NBC News should have broadcast the multi-media manifesto sent by the Virginia Tech killer.

But the bottom line is, it was news and as journalists. NBC had an obligation to broadcast it.

Yes, it may have been upsetting to some people, but news is frequently upsetting. That's simply the nature of news. Taken to its extreme, journalists wouldn't have reported anything about Sept. 11 and wouldn't have reported anything about Osama bin Laden.

This is information that people need to know. Certainly, journalists make judgment calls every day. And those calls will be second-guessed. It's part of the job.

But in this case, the killer's words and images helped explain what happened, as much as anything can explain that kind of madness. Yes, the killer was nuts, and the package he sent to NBC illustrated just how nuts he was. Withholding it would have been a disservice to news consumers.

Or, as Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford put it on "Scarborough Country," "It's NBC News, not NBC Your Mother."