Those outside the USA often find the tasteless antics of US reporters absolutely anathema. That may be true of many civilised countries - but it'd be a judgement that would be just as relevant to British tabloid journalism.

As for this issue I think there is a big distinction between reporting facts and giving a direct voice to the killer. I might be inclined to apply that to the big public killers like Bush and Blair as well to the private ones, but maybe there'd be other considerations involved there as well.

The idea that all someone needs to do to get their voice and their message splashed all over the media is kill a random bunch of people seems rather suspect to me.