I am not including the link. That is the link to the video of James Foleys murder. I am not giving a heat deal of thought to how my words come out here. I watched the video from beginning to end. Perhaps it was out of a sense of solidarity. Foley was 40 years old. He was a veteran journalist. Its easy to lose sight of what journalists have done for us and do for us every day. They provide us with the foundations for our rants about politics, privacy, war, peace, beliefs, cultures, art, music and everything worth discussing in any forum. In the past war correspondents were given a mostly free pass by all sides of conflict. Seemingly, it was in the interest of all parties to allow news to get out to the world. Always, there have been attempts - often by governments - to censor news. Sometimes for what I think are legitimate safety reasons and other times for glaringly, detestably and politically, motivated reasons. In modern times - these times; our times - journalists do not get a free pass. On peacetime soil my camera may get me access to areas restricted to the public, but in wartime carrying a camera or a press pass can get one killed. I havent read much about James Foley and dont know the first thing about his politics. Generally, journalists do their level best to be objective. They, we, share what we see and hear and allow the public to decide for themselves what to think. Certainly in the questions one asks or the angles one shoots the Subjective I, comes into play. It cannot be helped. That notwithstanding James Foley was reporting on the facts as he saw them on the ground. What kind of logic dictates that someone who does not have a side in conflict should be used as a pawn against a player in the conflict? How can I be even consider the legitimacy of a groups politics (if that is even something I can call the twisted, sick, unsubstantiated belief system being perpetrated on the Syrian people by this sick-minded collective) when they behave in blatantly criminal, pathological, abhorrent ways? My gut reactions are, perhaps, equally horrendous, and impossible to employ. Were exposed to death on a much more frequent basis now than ever before, thanks to this sort of medium (FB, etc.,). Before that we were exposed to the horrors of war more frequently and graphically beginning with the Vietnam war. I find it simultaneously devastating and imperative to be exposed to the realities of the world. We, almost certainly all of you who might have read this far, have unbridled security in your lives. You and I have the luxury of some degree of financial capital and security. We have social capital, cultural capital, and despite frightening and horrifying events such as those ongoing in MO, we have more freedom than any other developed to developing nation on earth. Journalism disabuses us of complacency myths. Journalists open our eyes to the otherwise invisibles. What we remember of conflicts is often reduced to images created by journalists who risked their lives to tell us what was happening in the moment - from flag-raising to napalm bombing, and gate opening to imprisoning enemy combatants. I dont even know where Im going with this. Maybe youve had the experience as a cop or other emergency service worker of a journalist trying to get closer to a scene than you wanted. Maybe youve wondered how a photographer could be so ghoulish as to snap away at a crying survivor, or widower. With the very little experience I have had shooting breaking news I can only speak of my own reactions: embarrassment, honor, sympathy, empathy, trepidation, and certainty. We, the public, want to be connected in some way to the experiences of others. Journalist make that possible. James Foley was connecting the world to events that for most of us were happening very far away. There are thousands like him in every corner of the world doing the same thing. In some of those corners there warm beds and home-cooked meals with family and friends at the end of the day; in some there are Monty-Python-esque Comfy Chairs. In others there are sick freaks with disgusting agendas. I am finding that it can be hard to remain open-minded.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:59:26 +0000
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