For years, we saw the famous image of a Vietnamese man about to be executed — without realizing that there was film of him actually being shot, crumpling to the ground. For years, we saw only the part of the Zapruder film in which President Kennedy was shot in the neck and not the horrifying frames when he was shot directly in the head.
There seemed to be a taboo against showing a person’s actual moment of death — a sense that such a moment was so profoundly personal — so sacred — that it shouldn’t be broadcast publically.
But this week, the whole world watched Neda Agha Soltan die. We watched not merely as she got shot, or fell down, or bled profusely. We zoomed into her face as she looked anguished, then as her eyes turned upward, and then as one eye became covered in blood and the other became glazed and still.
Yes, there have been pictures of people dying on the internet and elsewhere for a while but I can’t think of another case when so many people around the world had the experience of watching the moment when a stranger ceases to be alive.
I was trying to decide whether to show my kids. I wanted them connected to what’s going on in Iran but I also wondered how they would react to such a site. I had two fears: that it would traumatize them too much and that it would traumatize them too little. How can you not be haunted by such a site, I figured? But what if watching video games and movies has made death seem commonplace? Or what if, by breaking this taboo, we moved toward a time when such scenes no longer seem shocking?
I understand — and agree with — the decision to show Neda’s moment of expiration. That video is the greatest weapon freedom fighters have, especially if they’re inclined to use non-violence as their strategy.
But I also mourn for a new boundary being broken.
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posted June 23, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Well, remember the moment of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot shown over and over again? And, more to the point, there was footage in the sixties of Chinese protesters trying to block a road. The Chinese just went down the line with pistols shooting them and the footage did not change China at all. The taboo has not existed for a very long time, if it ever did.
posted June 23, 2009 at 3:17 pm
You are correct. It is a journalistic tabboo broken. You are also possibly correct that this might raise the bar even higher on what is shocking to us as individuals and as a society. However, I believe it is essential that the reality/consequence be shown of the brutality that tyrranical, oppressive regimes inflict on demonstrators and dissent in general. It cannot be conveied accurately with metaphors, before and after photos. The world must be shown evidence of the the visceral and merciless horror and the perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to justice.
posted June 24, 2009 at 12:55 am
Truth is not for the faint of heart.
CNN has shown a blurred video of her death. Many many deaths have been put before the world – just look at the list of Pulitzer prize winners for photography – you will see much of mans inhumanity to man. These images that capture the attention of the world have changed the world.
News should be about the truth, not about accommodating squeamish sensibilities. This 16 year old kid was murdered by thugs supported by Iranian government thugs – that is the truth. No one who claims to seek truth has a right to suppress the horrible graphic details of her death. The video of her death has become a rallying cry to the Iranian reform movement and all freedom loving people around the world.
If such images make you squeamish, then get out of the news/blog/truth business.
God Bless the freedom fighters in Iran
God Bless a future where the hatred of radical Islam is destroyed by reason, fairness compassion and democracy
posted June 24, 2009 at 2:23 am
It is so sad, how could someone like the military officer killed an innocent protestor? Plus, she was a young woman. I mean, they should have warned her and gave her chance, perhaps spray water or pepper sprag her leg or something. I guess, especially like the Communist country officials, they are very crazy on their government systems. I think we can learn from one of this incidents that this world doesn’t guns, weapons, or any kind of weapons of destruction. We are logical, civilized human we just need negotiation. I feel so bad for her, her fiance, her family, her community. I hate people use gun or violent.
She must had taught many of us a lesson the tragic of life, gun, and in human of certain people. I wish she has peace and forever remembered for her courage and sacrify. She was a lovely woman from what I seen in the video/pic. Whoever shot her, he or she would deserve no life in the heaven.