The morality of mauling

I just watched terrorists saw off Daniel Pearl's head.

A Boston alternative 'zine decided to run the whole fucking video. Daniel Pearl talking. Daniel Pearl being attacked. Daniel Pearl's head hanging from a terrorist's hand.

You won't find much a bigger a proponent of Freedom of the Press. It should go without saying that if we let a government censor what is obviously ugly, then we give it the freedom to censor other things it doesn't like.

Perhaps I should be the last one to criticize. I can't count the number of times I've been standing at a murder scene and said this to my bosses back at the station: "They're pulling out the bodies right now. We should be back in just a bit."

I shouldn't try to write this so soon after watching the video. I'm physically disgusted. Yet, I know that I can't criticize. I could've just as easily taken the route my wife did. She said, "I can't watch that."

Was it morbid curisoity on my part? Was it a part of a journalistic mission of some sort?

I've always said I would watch a state-conducted execution if allowed. I feel like I report on the death penalty enough that I should have some frame of reference for what actually happens when that penalty is carried out. The closest I've come to that mission is a tour of the death chamber and hearing first hand accounts of executions.

I should accept that I live in a country full of blood-thirsty citizens. We like violence. We like mayhem. Do we like watching a journalist being decapitated? I dunno.

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