Friday, January 05, 2007 Lee: Instant journalists, instant senators By Kelvin King Lee Babble On
A FRIEND of mine showed me the Saddam hanging video. The one where you actually see Saddam hang. It is a disturbing trend that shows how much technology has changed the world. Gruesome events, which would have once been censored for the good of the public, are now fair game and easily seen.
All one needs to do is type in the right words into your search engine and presto, instant videos of just about anything you would want to watch. The same thing goes for blogs. There are now articles surfacing on the internet which would be borderline libelous were they published in a normal newspaper. Some of those articles on blogs serve up gossip as truth, fiction as reality and unconfirmed sources as confirmed sources.
People talk about how technology can make instant journalists of everyone, which would be fine except that this very same technology has avoided the creation of a necessary thing for these so-called "journalists." Editors.
Editors separate the weed from the crops, the printable stuff from the non-printable stuff, the truth from the fiction, the reality from the fantasy. It is through editors that incidents like that of Jayson Blair, a NY Times reporter who falsified varied news stories, are eventually caught and held accountable.
The Blair incident burned the reporter, its editors and the newspaper, but they were held accountable. That might not necessarily be the case in a blog. Or even with the Saddam video.
The video didn't show anything special. It was grainy and unclear. But it was also obscene, because we were watching someone's death. Not just any death, but a hanging, one of the crueler forms of death available. True, it was a hated dictator being hung, but it was still a death. And take it from someone who was a boy when he saw his dad's dead body. It ain't pretty. Nor is it something I want to see ever again.
I saw the video out of curiosity. And instantly regretted it. It should never have been shown or aired or even distributed. It should never have even been taped. There are some things that should be left sacred. A man dying, even if by execution, is one of them.
I hate Saddam and everything he stood for. But that does not give anyone permission to videotape his death and then distribute it as though it was a tv show, even if it was under the guise of freedom of the press or some such lofty principle. There should be some limits, some boundaries that are never crossed. And I reiterate, death is one of those limits. Those "instant journalists" that taped and then distributed the video should be caught and made an example of. But please, no more hangings on video. I've had my fill.
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Richard Gomez is running for the Senate, according to Jinggoy Estrada. Wonderful. Yet another movie star to join our illustrious roster of senators. If ever there was a reason to try and get rid of that institution, it would be the predictable nature of the voters that allow movie stars to become politicians. FPJ ran and didn't win the presidency. Perhaps Gomez won't win either. Hah. Yeah right.
I guess we better get used to addressing him as Senator Gomez. Another guess is that Senator Kiko Pangilinan can't get away with being called the prettiest guy in the senate anymore. Not with Gomez in the House. Oh excuse me, I meant the Senate.
