Did Anybody See this Besides Me?

[willoweyes]

Early last week (perhaps Tuesday) on the Evening News with Dan Rather, they ran a clip featuring "an alleged terrorist" who was "taken out" by a government vehicle. It was the most horrific image I've ever seen on TV; the victim was struck at a high rate of speed, and his body flipped high in the air. Rather gloated that the "guy turned a couple of flips."

I believe that this took place in Spain, but I barely heard the words, the image so shocked me. Did this really happen, or am I imagining it? And if it happened, what does this say about the morals of our evening news?

[daniel]

if you didn't watch the TV news to begin with, you wouldn't have this conundrum.

[willoweyes]

I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the Body Politic.

[Charlie]

W.E.:

He wasn't a terrorist, he was a bank robber who held prisoners hostage inside the bank for 12 hours with a gun. He ordered food for them, and released some of the older people, along with a woman who suffered a panic attack. He requested a motorbike to escape, and within a mile of the bank was promptly cut down with a police car.

I don't have much pity for someone who holds hostages at gunpoint, but it was totally unnecessary for this man to be killed. He was being tracked by helicopters and couldn't have possibly escaped.

This from a country that abhors the death penalty, but is quite happy to make a public spectacle of torturing a bull to death.

[willoweyes]

Charlie, thank you for the clarification. I didn't really have any details of the incident, and couldn't find them, only barely catching the visual from across the room. Of course we don't like to see the state taking on the role of vehiclular judge jury and executioner. That sort of thing can so easily get out of hand. But the real shocker to me was the callous way this image was broadcast; dehumanizing and trivializing a horrific death.

[Halfglass]

I'm wondering why we're not seeing more t.v. links of action in Iraq, like there was in the '60s during Nam.

[Agent Smith]

it's pretty obvious why we're not seeing more images of american soldiers being killed... they don't want us to conect to the reality that our fellow human beings are being killed. since we identify with our countrymen more easily than people from other places, they especially don't want us to see american deaths. this morning i thought i heard '12 killed in iraq yesterday'... so very sanitary, and clean that way. a friend of a friend is going over there next week. he joined the army, and now believes it is the only place for him in this society. i worry about what will happen to him while he's there. i worry about what will happen to us if he returns. (at least where i grew up there was no ideology for making violence acceptable. it was just a fact of life, people didn't try to justify it.)