[2] After the broadcast, MTV went dark for 17½ hours while it aired a continuous on-screen scroll listing the names of hundreds of United States hate crime victims.

[3][4] The scroll ran continuously and commercial free for seventeen and-a-half hours, and was the first time in its 20 year history, the network went dark.

[5] The Matthew Shepard Foundation put out the following statement in relation to the film: "While we appreciate MTV's efforts to fight anti-gay discrimination and hate crimes, and support the social justice organizations participating in the network's year-long pro-social campaign, the Shepard family wants to make clear that it had no involvement in and does not give its blessing or endorsement to the MTV film Anatomy of a Hate Crime.

"[5]The Washington Post wrote in their review that the best parts of the film are "the performances of Cy Carter as the 21-year-old Shepard and Brendan Fletcher as one of his killers, Aaron McKinney...the worst part is that writer Max Ember couldn't settle on a timeline and so jumps all over the calendar like a jack rabbit...murder anatomies, especially ones hoping to teach lessons, should be methodical and thorough, and this hopscotching technique is distracting and lazy".

They praised Ian Somerhalder's performance as "outstanding", and said the character he portrayed, Russell Henderson, is "made comprehensible by a smart script", [however] the producers took a big risk "humanizing someone who committed such a monstrous act...but they are wise enough to understand that the only way we will understand our own capacity for hate is to recognize our own worst impulses and passions in the killers...In the end, this is what makes the film worthy of being judged as art rather than just propaganda".