The question hangs, as news outlets over the weekend gorged on cellphone video of a Chicago teen beaten to death Thursday after getting swept up in fight between two gangs.

Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old honors student, was hit with a board, kicked and beaten with fists after he tried to help a friend who was also being beaten by the gang members.

There is little blood or gore on the video, so outlets ranging from the local Fox affiliate to CNN have aired the footage, sometime blurring the image so viewers can't see the details of Albert's face or body.

I'll be on National Public Radio's Tell Me More show live at about 9:20 a.m. today to discuss some natural questions: should news outlets air this video? Is there a racial component -- were news outlets more interested in the video because it showed black teens acting violently?

I think TV news outlets are addicted to compelling footage, and they would have aired this video if the kids committing the crime were green. But it didn't hurt that the incident fueled emotional conversations about poverty, race, gangs and policing to fill the voracious maw of the 24-hour cable news networks.

Here's an example of how some news outlets used the video. What do you think?