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I am indeed sorry that Mr. Pearl died in such a horrible way. But I have a serious, heretical-sounding question: did he actually DO something heroic, or did he just get captured and killed? (Please forgive my ignorance--I haven't followed this very much.) Did he really give his life for truth, or was he just there on an assignment?
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He wanted to interview the leaders of the Moslem extremists in Pakistan. They just grabbed him up. Not heroic - merely another journalist with no nose for danger and a really bad sense of timing. Sad, but not really earth-shattering. Journalists are fair game in the middle east. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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old hand
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I heard a couple of people talking on the radio the other day about this. They also said that a huge number of journalists die or get killed around the world each year whilst on assignment - 150 I think they said. This seems to be an extraordinary claim?
stales
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addict
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After September 11th, every American who dies in a foreign land is a hero. [Hypocritical emoticon]
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addict
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I heard a couple of people talking on the radio the other day about this. They also said that a huge number of journalists die or get killed around the world each year whilst on assignment - 150 I think they said. This seems to be an extraordinary claim?
I didn't hear this story, stales, but I know it's true. Photojournalism is a subject close to my heart and I have followed it closely ever since I started to hear about such legends as Robert Capa and Don McCullin. Capa was killed in the early days of the Indo-China war whilst McCullin covered Vietnam, the Lebanese civil war and many other conflicts around the world.
Nobody knows why journalists are lured to the dangerous spots and conflicts but some say that it is their need to cover the truth of a subject and record it for the world to see that drives them. Unlike a CNN reporter standing at the rear or in a Holiday Inn the true reporter puts on a flak jacket and goes out with the forces to oversee behaviour on both sides. The best journalists record atrocities on both sides, as I believe there were plenty in the recent Afghan debacle.
Many young journalists are killed during quiet moments and lulls in the fighting when their guard is down and they are least expecting trouble - not in the heat of battle. Four Swedish journalists were killed by bandits whilst sleeping in a small village held by 'friendly' forces in Afghansiatan. 150 journalists killed last year seems quite a conservative figure, byt the way. During one year of the Bosnian conflict alone more than 50 journalists were killed - several by sniper fire just after arriving at Sarajevo airport - and conflicts elsewhere would easily bring this figure up to the hundreds.
I don't mind confessing that, despite the dangers involved, I almost gave up my job to take a freelance assignment to Afghanistan last year. The conflict didn't last long enough for me to finish my organisation, however. Had I been wounded or killed during that conflict I would hate to have been referred to as a hero. What I would have seen and recorded would be my testament to frivolity and horror of war and that is more important to me than fame and recognition. And, so I believe, to all journalists.
Daniel Pearl was unlucky. He knew the risk he was taking and he paid dearly for it. But his being used as a political pass-the-parcel and being referred to as a hero is unwarrented. The fact he was American was coincidental to the task he was performing. He was a journalist - not a freedom fighter and, to label him a hero implies the latter which is just sickening.
The political implications of such labelling is to give carte blanche to the Draconian anti-terrorist policies of a fundamentally arrogant US government by justifying pressure on the Pakistani government and even, in the not-too-distant future, allowing a military occupation of that country.
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to label him a hero ... is just sickening.
I do not appreciate my posts being called "sickening".
You are entitled to your opinion. If you are a socialized creature, you should use ordinary decency in expressing it.
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Rubrick : I agree with your observation that some say that it is their need to cover the truth of a subject and record it for the world to see that drives them.
journalists are lured to the dangerous spots and conflicts is perhaps true of freelancers but in many cases the reporter is assigned by an editor and goes where sent.
Then of course you have the "Bigfoots" - nationally known figures - who rush in, report and leave. My personal experience is that most Bigfoots are from TV.
Generally, it is the regular reporter, the guy-on-the-ground who gets the real stories.
Many events would never have been noticed internationally but for the persistence and courage of some guys on the ground. The famine in Ethiopia of years ago leaps to mind.
Then, of course there are cases where combatants who have things to hide will kill a reporter for the chilling effect on the media.
When troops are sent they have had training and are armed. Reporters go with a pencil and paper. Hero? Perhaps not. But courageous, I think so.
My sympathy goes out to the family Dan Pearl left behind.
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I don' think Rubrick actually disagrees... what he said was
Daniel Pearl was unlucky. He knew the risk he was taking and he paid dearly for it. But his being used as a political pass-the-parcel and being referred to as a hero is unwarrented. The fact he was American was coincidental to the task he was performing. He was a journalist - not a freedom fighter and, to label him a hero implies the latter which is just sickening.E.A.
He didn't say the post was sickening.. or that it no big deal that David Pearl was killed.
But labeling him a hero for doing a job, and getting killed is a bit much.
Yes, we who live with the luxury of free press, are always shocked when reported are killed for doing their job. Our free press is joy. Reporters who leave for foriegn parts know, every word they right or report can be a death sentence. they are brave to chose such a career. They act with courage. but are they heros?
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War correspondents are essentially isolated egoists, or at least that's the way they seem to me.
The Vietnam War seemed to bring them out of the woodwork in droves, and they were lauded by their sponsoring organisations because their reports from just behind the front lines were spectacular after the stultifying ennui of "official" reporting carried out safely from miles away. There were two types of journos during Vietnam, the sitters and the goers. The goers crawled around wearing flak vests and cammo gear, either with the front line troops or only just half a step behind them. They got spectacular footage/shots/stories, and it because almost a competitive sport to see how far you could go.
The sitters stayed in Saigon and reported the fighting crumbs from the combat tables, often gleaned or even made up from the scanty contents of American army press reports. They never ventured any further than "pacified" villages within easy reach by cab of their hotel bars.
A number of the goers were killed (and a number of the sitters, when the war came to Saigon), but the game seemed to be worth the candle - to them, anyway. I was working in the newspaper industry at the time of the collapse, and there were some Zild reporters doing stupid things in Indochina which even our troops in Vietname wouldn't have countenanced getting involved in. The goer war correspondents were regarded with bemused astonishment by most real reporters.
But were they heros? Not a chance. They were in it for number 1. They weren't out to make the world better. They weren't out to address burning issues. They weren't out to save the oppressed from their oppressors. They weren't out to stop wars. They weren't out to expose misgovernment or state terrorism. They were just out to prove to themselves and their friends how gutsy they were, and the kudos they craved were from their colleagues, not from you or me. Getting paid for doing it was just the icing on the cake.
Anyone who's seen "Under Fire" - in spite of the Hollywood razzmatazz - would get the idea!
I'm sorry for Pearl's family. But the man was a fool.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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