# Has anyone watched the Daniel Pearl video yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2002, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643 "2002-06-12T14:04:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/1 "2002-06-12T14:04:21Z")
Boston Pheonix has a link to it on their site [here](http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/editorial/documents/02299081.htm). I haven’t watched it yet, particularly because I’m at work, but I’m not sure I want to see it anyway. I’m not usually all that squeamish, but this is different. _This is real._ I’ve been reading people’s opinions on the video, specifically on its newsworthiness. Is this important news and history? Or mere sensationalism? Most of the few articles I’ve read about it maintain that it’s important for us to see the video so we can see just how evil these terrorists are. I’m still not sure how I feel about it yet. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/2 "2002-06-12T14:08:05Z")
Yet? Err… no and I never will. There was a pit thread a while back where several people had seen it… ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/3 "2002-06-12T14:11:48Z")
Yeah, I’ve seen it. Unfortunately, being the sick bastard that I am, I’ve seen worse. I just feel bad for his family, and hope they never have to see it. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/4 "2002-06-12T14:14:11Z")
I had clinked on the link to it from one of the blogs I read. The video loaded up, and I watched about two seconds, and stopped it. I decided then and there that I had no desire to see this man murdered and mutilated and subjected to that kind of indignity. I’m perfectly capable of understanding the level of evil involved without seeing a person subjected to that. I’ve seen the Bud Dwyer video, and I can handle gore and violence, but this just seemed to me to be too voyeuristic. ---
**Author:** ![CRorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CRorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CRorex)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/5 "2002-06-12T14:15:13Z")
Didn’t the person who posted the link to the video the first time get yelled at by everyone and the mods? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/6 "2002-06-12T14:22:16Z")
Well, yesterday I requested that no one post _direct_ links to the video, or pictures taken from it. This link does have a photo, but it’s not _too_ gruesome - if you haven’t seen the video yet. If you have seen it, then you immediately know what you’re looking at, unfortunately. I was debating watching the video yesterday, mostly because I wanted to know how bad it was. I can’t really tell people a link is too gory if I don’t know what it contains, right? So I watched it. Does the video have news value? None whatsoever. I don’t really know if we should take the link out of the OP or not. Let me get back to you on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/7 "2002-06-12T14:31:46Z")
I’m not sure how to judge if something has “news value”. Coldfire, how did you determine it doesn’t? I’m not disagreeing with you, I really can’t think of a useful criteria. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/8 "2002-06-12T14:37:06Z")
I did. Wish I fucking hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/9 "2002-06-12T14:40:11Z")
Well, we all know he’s dead. We all know he’s been killed by fucking loonies. The video confirms both, and adds nothing else. :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/10 "2002-06-12T14:40:47Z")
I have yet to see one person who has said “I watched it, and I’m really glad I did. It really made me understand the situation better.” I think it is a sad day when people can’t just say “boy, that man must have suffered horribly”. Instead they say “ooo! Can I see it?” gross. J ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/11 "2002-06-12T14:40:49Z")
**Coldfire** , if the “link to a link” thing would be more appropriate, you can change it to the post on my board about it [here](http://boards.slackercentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20048). ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/12 "2002-06-12T14:44:47Z")
I agree jarbaby… also the jaded nature of a society that can see a video like that and not be scarred by it is something that saddens me as well. I know that I won’t see it, and if for some reason I did see it, I’d be having nightmares for weeks. ::shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/13 "2002-06-12T14:53:18Z")
I just watched it. I think it does have new value. I don’t think it could be stranger if it were alien monsters we were fighting. The tape seems a blatant effort to manipulate, but with such a poor understanding of human thought and emotion. Are we supposed to be struck by the pictures of the weeping Muslim women and hospitalized children, and not for the beheading of Daniel Pearl? When they have him talk, it seems that they can appeal to compassion, that they understand atrocity. It’s a deliberate thing. They want to show us that they understand, but they’ll do these things anyway. I can’t imagine what they were thinking when they put the video together. It’s not going to help them in any way, and it simply seems like an act of bragodoccio. The other thing I noticed was that it looked like he was already dead when they beheaded him. It doesn’t look like he was shot or beaten. I wonder if he was deliberately killed. I doubt they were treating him well, and it seems to me that he was worth more alive than dead. I wonder if he succumbed to something: neglect, lack of water, maybe an infection, or internal damage from a beating, and when he died from it they did the grisly deed to try to salvage some PR value. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/14 "2002-06-12T15:07:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*Well, we all know he’s dead. We all know he’s been killed by fucking loonies. > > The video confirms both, and adds nothing else. :shrug: \*\* I though of that, but isn’t that true for possibly every single news footage you have ever seen? It never adds new information that couldn’t be described by a newscaster or written in a newspaper. I suspect the concept of “newsworthiness” really doesn’t exist at all for video. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/15 "2002-06-12T15:08:10Z")
I guess I have similar views to **Scylla**. Putting aside the horrid humanitarian issues, I don’t know who this is aimed at and what purpose it’s supposed to serve. Perhaps that’s just an indication of how far removed from the mind-set of these radicals I am. Or they are from the mainstream. I think by the conventional constraints of any culture, these guys are way out there and they either don’t know it or don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/16 "2002-06-12T15:11:41Z")
I’ve seen it. It’s a propoganda video, and there is far, far worse out there in cyberspace. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/17 "2002-06-12T15:29:08Z")
I for one found myself more angry about the things they were making him say - professing his Jewishness - than the beheading. Like he was giving a litany of his crimes, making him worthy of such a punishment. He was a _journalist_, you numbingly evil and stupid fucks. If you wanted to make your worldview known, he would have given you an interview. He was **pursuing** such interviews when he was kidnapped. At least the video may keep people from going too far over into the “but we’ve got to try to _understaaaaaaaand_” crowd. Yes, we need to understand. We also have to remember the animalistic ruthlessness and lack of compassion of those who seek to do us harm. If you doubt or dispute my characterization of them, feel free to watch the video. ---
**Author:** ![Beastal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Beastal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastal)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/18 "2002-06-12T16:09:39Z")
Well, the reason **I** watched the video was because I like to expose myself to the ‘badder’ elements of this world, because it helps me develop a clearer and more thorough understanding of this planet we live on. It also allows me to appreciate the finer things in life a lot more, and I take some satisfaction in knowing that I don’t blind myself to the harsh realities that exist here. If you like, it makes me more ‘worldly’. On a completely unrelated matter, this thread is number 120,000 on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/19 "2002-06-12T16:51:40Z")
This may be a dumb question, but is this the first verified snuff film? FWIIW, I started watching it but stopped. It’s too gut wrenching for me. ---
**Author:** ![sidle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643/20 "2002-06-12T17:09:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Milossarian \* > At least the video may keep people from going too far over into the “but we’ve got to try to _understaaaaaaaand_” crowd. Yes, we need to understand. We also have to remember the animalistic ruthlessness and lack of compassion of those who seek to do us harm. If you doubt or dispute my characterization of them, feel free to watch the video. Well said, **Milossarian** … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-watched-the-daniel-pearl-video-yet/113643.md?page=2)