One hostage is known to be dead, one is most likely dead, one probably will be dead. I can't think of it without being drawn into this sense of rage and hopelessness; I can't imagine how the familoes are feeling. I know I am only feeling one little bit of their pain.
But I want to know; by blogging on the deaths, am I part of the problem or part of the solution? If we just ignored the events...hard to do, I know, but if the world media would agree to underplay it, to simply state their names and focus on the people who died and not the "message" of these beasts, would these horrific, vile acts end?
My condolensces to the family of the man who died, Eugene Armstrong. My prayer go out to the family of Jack Hensley, please G-d may it be that they have lied. And to the family of Kenneth Bigley; I hope and pray for a miracle for your son and brother.
Posted by Rachel Ann at September 21, 2004 08:29 PMI just visited CNN. Can someone explain to me why the news services insist on placing these horrific videos on their sites? I simply do not understand it!
Posted by: Yoel Ben-Avraham at September 21, 2004 10:48 PMYears ago I was watching a panel discussion on this very topic.
The panel consisted of some of the most well-known journalists of the time. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Leslie Stahl, and many more.
The host (whose name I don't recall right now, but it was not Fred Friendly) asked Leslie Stahl a question:
[From memory only; this is not verbatim]: Host: You are filming an incident where a terrorist promises to kill a present hostage unless X demand is met. What do you do?Stahl: Well, I guess I would try to reason with him. Try to tell him that killing this innocent hostage wont get him anywhere near...
Host: He disagrees. He tells you that this is exactly what will get him what he wants. What then?
Stahl: I.. I suppose I'd try harder to convince him that he's only hurting his cause. That if he'd just...
Host: He's not listen to your reason. He will kill this hostage reguardles of what you tell him. What'll you do then?
Stahl: I... I'm not sure that I can do anything then...
Host: How about saying "Turn. The Cameras. Off."?
Leslie stared at the Host in stunned silence.
Peter Jennings then interjected that he'd been in a situation much like the Host had described. He had them turn the cameras off and yet the victim was killed anyway.
It's not that the atrocity needs to be seen, it's just that it needs to be reported.
I've still not watched the Nick Berg beheading because I just don't want to see it.
But I know OF it, and that's all they think they need me to know.
What you want, Rachel Ann, is a "media blackout" of this crap in the hopes that, if we suck the oxygen of coverage from them, they'll dry up and go away.
Maybe they would. But, I think, the coverage is only a convenient way for them to get out their message. Even if we "ignore" them, we can't ignore them.
They'll use the media, sure. But it's the core of their sociopathology that needs to be directly dealt with.
A media blackout might save a life, or two or three or even twenty. But, please please please, don't be tempted by a desire to save three lives when it might mean that many thousands more will be lost just because we temporarily forgot to think clearly.
I would give up my own life if it could bring back a hundred who've already rotted in one of Saddam's mass graves if I knew that those hundreds could then live on with liberty and peace.
No one wants to just give their life up for just anything. But, many will risk it for something / Everything.
Yes, a media blackout might save a life or two. But, it wouldn't save the rest of us all. The terrorists don't care about a mom on a bus, they only care about Islam.
Not to be callous, or unfeeling, or anything, but someone once said that a single death is a tragedy while a thousand deaths is a statistic. There's a really big big picture in front of us. Sometimes one of us has to die to prevent a thousand more of us dying.
It's not pretty, but it's what we're facing.
Saying "Turn off the camera" doesn't mean much to people who know that the story will be reported anyway. And "Media Blackout" doesn't mean much to those who are jus' gonna report the story anyway.
We're not going to defeat the media, we're therefore gonna have to transcend it.
I'm not sure if I've made any sense in all this. But I still think I know that the only way to defeat an enemy is to defeat it. If that still makes any sense...
Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 22, 2004 03:40 AM