TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Daniel Pearl

  • More on Daniel Pearl

    More on Daniel Pearl

    Over the weekend, I read a commentary from Chicago Tribune columnist Julia Keller. It was kind of a wishy-washy piece about that Boston rag publishing the Daniel Pearl pictures and linking to the video on their website. I can’t link the article since the Tribune asks you to register, but I’ll post snippets from the article and then my comments.

    The three-minute-or-so video of the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl was posted this week on the Web site of a popular and respected newspaper

    Respected? If it was, it’s not anymore.

    And then, so swiftly that it takes the viewer by surprise, comes what seems to be Pearl’s decapitation. The qualification is necessary because there is no way to independently verify the video. Pearl’s executioner, who is not seen, then brandishes the severed head for several seconds

    Let that sink in for a minute.

    Given the video’s grotesque content, why would the Phoenix, for which Pearl once worked, post a link to it?

    I didn’t know he once worked for that rag. That makes it even a bigger slap in the face.

    why would the Phoenix, for which Pearl once worked, post a link to it? The Phoenix, after all, is a responsible news organization, an alternative weekly with a circulation of approximately 118,000 that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1994, one of only two alternative weeklies ever to receive journalism’s top honor (the other was The Village Voice).

    To gain national media attention and sell a few more issues. Then again, the Pulitzer isn’t what it used to be.

    In an interview, Mindich (the publisher) expressed dismay that the U.S. government had apparently taken pains to suppress the video. In fact, he added, the government should have aided widespread dissemination of the video, so that Americans could fully comprehend the murderous virulence of the anti-Semitism among Islamic extremists.

    I don’t understand why our government hasn’t expressed their outrage. I don’t understand why President Bush didn’t get on the air and say, `This is completely intolerable.’”

    No one has to say that this is intolerable. Most people with any amount of sanity know that this is a despicable act.

    “If Daniel Pearl had his choice, he’d want it seen.”

    I highly doubt that, since you didn’t try to get his widow’s permission.

    Mindich said he was aware of the brave new journalism world that he has helped initiate by instructing his Webmaster to link to the video.

    “It was literally an instant from decision to execution. I just thought, `Wow. I can do this immediately.’ I felt empowered.”

    Like a six-year-old with a new toy. This one just happened to garner national media attention.

    Mindich said. It will remain indefinitely on the Phoenix site, he added. “I don’t see any reason to take it down.”

    How about respect for Daniel Pearl’s family? No? I didn’t think so.

    This is nothing more than an ego trip for Mindich so he can see his own name in national print. Stephen M. Mindich, you are nothing more than a sensationalist scumbag. Spitting on the memory of Daniel Pearl. Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave. I hope you rot in hell.

  • Boston Paper Shows Pearl Pictures

    Boston Paper Shows Pearl Pictures

    I know I said I wasn’t going to post in the afternoon anymore, but something has pissed me off so bad I couldn’t wait until tonight.

    I am so disgusted once again. According to this article from Fox News, an “alternative” (read: left-wing extremist rag) newspaper in Boston has printed pictures from the Daniel Pearl video. Including one of Pearl’s severed head. This “newspaper” has also linked to the Pearl video from their website. The publisher is using the CBS defense, stating that America needs to see this video to see how much these terrorists hate Jews and Americans. And something occurred to me while thinking about this that didn’t occur to me the time I wrote about CBS showing the video.

    We don’t need to see how much they hate Americans and Jews. We all saw how much they hate us on September 11, 2001, when we saw the World Trade Center towers collapse live on TV. We got the point. There is no need to keep torturing this poor man’s family. Of course, the publisher of this rag hides behind the first amendment. But we all know the real reason for the publishing of the pictures and of the linking to the video. They want to sell more papers by appealing to the lowest common denominator. They want people talking about them. And look, here we are, talking about them. Notice I haven’t mentioned the paper or publisher by name. This is definitely a case of making the news instead of reporting it. This is right out of the National Enquirer handbook.

    The publisher also says…

    “The general public goes to films that are far more gory, and for no purpose other than to affect emotions.. “This is the real world, an enormously important event, the picture speaks a thousand words.”

    True, but the general public realizes that these are not real people being killed in movies. We’re not talking about something that has a story, and a plot, and character interaction, and a happy ending. We’re talking about someone who was kidnapped, held hostage, and then brutally murdered. Someone who had a wife and a baby on the way. So now this rag is celebrating the baby’s birth by publishing pictures of its father’s severed head. Happy Birthday.

    My question to you Mr. Publisher guy is, if someone in your family had been brutally killed, and it was videotaped, would you be showing it in your newspaper and on your website? I seriously doubt it. There’s a special place in hell for people like you.

  • FBI Seeks to remove Pearl Video from the web

    FBI Seeks to remove Pearl Video from the web

    Finally, my tax dollars are being used for something I want them to be used for. According to this article, the FBI is intently trying to get the Daniel Pearl video off the Internet. According to the article, the FBI has asked sites to voluntarily remove the video. One website that was asked to remove the video, stated on their site…

    The FBI contacted our host to inform them that they were going to sue us for putting on the Pearl video on 5-18-2002. We had no other choice than deleting the video. Our host left us the choice to decide what to do and didn’t delete anything like it’s described in the wired article. This just shows once again how the “big people” decide what we can or can’t see. Don’t we have to right to decide that ourself? We live in a censored world.

    So I went to this website and let me tell you what kind of crap they’re offering?

    Horror scene from world war II, bodies floating in the sea
    Indian extremist killings
    Columbine shooting images of shooters (of course)
    Rotting corpse covered with flies
    Snowboarded makes a very bad landing
    Body modification: having your tongue split

    And they also offer links to rape sites and other gore sites.

    Now according to this article from Wired, the ACLU is getting their nose all bent over this. From the article…

    Barry Steinhardt, the associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he “can’t imagine what argument the government is making that they can prohibit a website from publishing” the videotape.

    “It’s clearly not obscene,” Steinhardt said. “I’m sure it’s macabre and horrible, but it’s not obscene. The publication on a website of this videotape is protected under the First Amendment.

    Not obscene? Excuse me??? Nothing is more obscene than watching a member of your family die. This isn’t free speech. This is an abomination of free speech. Why isn’t the ACLU trying to protect the Pearl family? As I’ve said before and I’ll say again. Videos and pictures showing the actual deaths of actual people for mere entertainment value should be put in the same class as child porn. And should also have the same penalties. You may be saying to yourself “Isn’t that a little severe?” My answer to that is if you’re not checking out these pics, then you have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, if you are one of these twisted freaks that are into these pics, well, I hope you make it on to your favorite site someday…the hard way.

  • Death Video

    Death Video

    We all know about Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl being kidnapped and brutally murdered in Pakistan. And we all heard about how the killers videotaped his death. One minute he was talking like he was being interviewed, and the next someone had slashed his throat. All while being videotaped. The tape was sent to a Pakistani journalist, and it eventually found its way to the U.S. State Dept. Which leads me to believe there are multiple copies of this tape. I hope none of the copies will find their way into the wrong hands. I’m specifically speaking of people who trade these kinds of videos underground.

    We’ve all either heard about or seen snuff videos, where a film is shown of actual people dying actual deaths. And there are various websites that also show MPEGs of people being brutally killed or maimed. Without delving into the subject of who gets off on this sick shit, I hope for the sake of everyone, the Daniel Pearl video never sees the light of day. He had a wife and an unborn child who will never know her father. I’d hate to think if she grew up and accidentally stumbled upon his death video somewhere.

    Back in the 80s, a man who, I believe, was a Pennsylvania senator by the name of Budd Dwyer called a press conference to talk about being indicted. In the middle of the press conference that was broadcast live on local TV, he took out a pistol, stuck it in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. I happened to be home from school and watching at the time. I was horrified and never wanted to see anything like that ever again. But Budd Dwyer made himself into somewhat of a celebrity that day because since the tape was only shown once on TV it is very rare to get a copy of it, but it is out there. There are even some sites that claim to carry the surveillance video from the Columbine High.

    Luckily, not all famous deaths make it to light. When Brandon Lee was accidentally killed during the filming of the movie The Crow, the film containing his death was destroyed.

    My point is this. Videos involving anyone’s death just for the sake of shock viewing should be banned. I’m all for freedom of speech, but there is no intrinsic value to any of these tapes. Every one of those people whose death you may see on tape had a mother, or husband, or child that really cared for them, and they have to relive it every time one of those videos is shown. They need to be banned and banned now. There needs to be some kind of law not unlike the Son of Sam law which states convicted felons cannot profit from their illegal activities through books and movies, etc. There needs to be a law which states no one can profit through the exploitation of someone’s death on video or film or any other viewed medium.