Democracy and Media

The courage and effort of people such as Elizabeth Cochrne is outstanding to me. Especially for those times. The courage to actually get put into an institution and expose it from the inside out is incredible. As I was reading About "Nellie Bly" and Veronica GuerinI started to wonder what effort is being taken nowadays to expose what's going on? Is the leaked video of the Apache helicopter really something people didn't expect to see? Videos like this have been circulating on the internet since I can remember. I remember seeing a video at the start of the war of a group of possible insurgents around a truck, possibly getting ready to attack the chopper overhead. They fired, and the black and white thermal camera image showed the .50 cal rounds tear the people apart (I might be mistaken on the round size). Chunks of human, seen in shades of grey being sprayed around the ground near this truck were disgusting. The men shot, trying to drag their bodies to safety being fired at again, to finish them off.
Of course, it IS war, and nobody is going to be throwing teddy bears at the "enemy" so what reaction is one to have? Happiness that the forces of "good" can tally up a few more kills for the sake of safety and democracy? Indifference because of the nature of war and how it can never change in terms of casualties? Or perhaps despair that beliefs, and actions of specific people or governments are outside of our control? Maybe this is why we don't see these kinds of things in the first place. Because people wouldn't know how to react anyway. And what good is seeing these images if no action is taken? If life goes on the same way, without some sort of awareness, and positive action? That last statement might reek of naivety, but is awareness enough?
The one name that popped into my head as I thought about journalist putting their life on the line was Daniel Pearl. He was beheaded in 2002 and buried in 10 pieces after going to Pakistan trying to get interviews with Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, but instead was kidnapped and killed apparently because of Americas presence in Pakistan, and the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. It stopped me in my tracks when I realized how long this war has been going on, and how it's been since 2001. I also remember footage from the Gulf War when soldiers were coming back home and people were screaming in the streets in my old neighborhood (Rockaway Beach, Queens) "we won, we won!" I still remember military helicopters flying overhead around that time, I'm assuming flying towards the airport.