The Beatification of Daniel Pearl

The Beatification of Daniel Pearl
By David Glenn Cox




Death will come to us all, none will escape. No one's death should bring joy to us, all deaths are equal in the eyes of God. Murder is murder, it is never to be excused or accommodated, as all deaths are equal. The murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, is no exception. I fully and whole-heartedly condemn his murder and hope that full justice comes to his murderers and peace comes to his family.


My problem with the murder of Daniel Pearl really doesn’t have anything to do with Mr. Pearl himself and it’s difficult to write about because so many will grasp at the emotional issue and then close their eyes. It is the media’s handling of Mr. Pearl’s murder that disturbs me, the praise and tribute heaped on a reporter for one of the most right-wing newspapers in America. A man that went into a dangerous country to do a story about dangerous people, and even though was warned by the American Embassy about trusting these people, he ignored those warnings and paid with his life.


Momma used to say, “Son, don’t pet the alligators if you look like food.” That is exactly what Mr. Pearl did; it was courageous and brave but not heroic. Mr. Pearl worked for the Wall Street Journal for 12 years. They liked what he wrote and when he was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan he was working on a story about Muslim extremists. The Wall Street Journal editorial board was of one mind and supported the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and used Mr. Pearls death as an example. After the murder of Mr. Pearl, he was described as a person seeking dialogue and accommodation and his sole purpose in Pakistan was to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Does that sound like The Wall Street Journal to you?


Reporters, like firemen, are sometimes required to do dangerous work and both are paid for their efforts. But fireman seek to save lives, that’s heroic; reporters seek to tell stories, that’s noble. The two should not be confused. Soldiers seek to serve their country, that’s heroic. Reporters seek stories that will please their editors, that’s just business. Reporters can refuse dangerous assignments if they choose, soldiers cannot.


Daniel Pearl’s death has been remarked upon by the President and Vice President, movies have been made about him, books have been written, HBO runs documentaries and Celine Dion even dedicated a song to Mr. Pearl’s widow, and that’s fine. But what about the other reporters killed in the Middle East? What about the 4,000 dead Americans and the 30,000 wounded? I guess that’s what bothers me, the overemphasis on one man who was killed on the job and who had a choice and is lauded for behaving very recklessly. While the thousands of innocents, with no choice, no escape, no Wall Street Journal paycheck at the end of the day, are ignored and forgotten by the media because their deaths don’t serve the purposes of the administration or the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Pearl was Jewish and that calls into question the wisdom of a Jewish reporter in an unstable Muslim country, there to do a story about Muslim extremists; would you send an African-American reporter to do a story about the Arian Nation? Would that be wise or prudent? The group that murdered Mr. Pearl claimed that he was an Israeli Mossad agent, and they could have claimed that regardless of his heritage, but Mr. Pearl was a tasty target and delivered himself into their hands.


There is no evidence of any Mossad connection, except, of course, the quickness and degree of the administration's reaction. If the radicals were seeking proof by sending up a trial balloon and making the claim before the murder, the administration certainly reinforced their beliefs by the voracious response. Americans were being held as hostages in several countries with the standard administration line, that we don’t negotiate with terrorists, but in Mr. Pearl’s case, the offers of ransom were almost immediate and Mr. Pearl was held captive for at least a week before his murder.


The story of Daniel Pearl’s murder reeks with the nuances of Jessica Lynch's, the Army Private captured and then rescued, whose story was carefully scripted by the Defense Department. Lynch was made to look like one part Rambo, one part Audie Murphy, when, in fact, she was a scared, 19-year-old, injured when her Humvee turned over. Or the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL star who heroically signed up to serve his country when he felt his country needed him, then was killed tragically in a friendly fire incident. But both Tillman and Lynch were serving their country and had no choice in the time or place of their injuries, which is heroic.


This administration, through the Defense Department, chose to use the incidents as media propaganda events. Yet we are expected to believe that Mr. Pearl's death is so often quoted by this administration only because of their genuine outrage. The books and movies and documentaries about a well-paid, white-collar worker murdered while behaving irresponsibly overshadow the deaths of tens of thousands of others, not so wonderfully compensated. Who also leave behind young wives and young children, who won’t have foundations named after them nor songs dedicated to their widows. Their only remembrance will be the photographs fading on the mantlepiece and crosses marking the Earth where they rest.


Mr. Pearl’s murder saddens me, but no more than any other of the deaths in a senseless war. But the exploitation of that death angers me; the true heroes went without expense accounts or company credit cards. They did and do as they are told, because they have made a commitment to serve their country. They didn’t fly in first class and they don’t take luxury vacations when the situation becomes too stressful. And when they die in this media foisted campaign, they won’t have rock concerts held in their honor. They will be returned under the dark of night to Dover, Delaware with no photography allowed and The Wall Street Journal will call it the tragic cost to be paid in the long war on terror.

with a nod of agreement.

family...but something never seemed quite right. Mrs. Pearl was recently received at the White House by Bush, which may mean nothing, but since everyone is avoiding him these days...

Who died in dangerous areas, I say, "It comes with the territory." I feel sorry for their families and pray their deaths were relatively swift, but I am not outraged. You work in a war zone, you take your chances. It's certainly not a hero's death.

And btw Dave, another great column; you're kickin' ass lately. You're turning into one splendid writer.

Truly good writers know how to spell.

Dave does have trouble with his spelling, but a lot of very fine writers -- think Katherine Anne Porter -- seemed congenitally unable to spell. I once read it was a nightmare proofing her mss. sometimes.
I'm an author myself, btw, have written a few books, have made a living as a writer my entire life (only thing that's ever paid my bills) and I don't mind Dave's spelling and grammatical mistakes -- and he does make them. I do, however, enjoy his ideas and his voice. A voice is far more important than perfect spelling, IMO.
I find your comment a bit petty, quite frankly.

for your kind words. Mark Twain's editor complained he wasn't sending in enough pages each day. Twain bought a smaller sized tablet

...who by most accounts was a pretty good writer:

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."

"I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing."

"I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us."

"...ours is a mongrel language which started with a child's vocabulary of three hundred words, and now consists of two hundred and twenty-five thousand; the whole lot, with the exception of the original and legitimate three hundred, borrowed, stolen, smouched from every unwatched language under the sun, the spelling of each individual word of the lot locating the source of the theft and preserving the memory of the revered crime."