EDITORIAL — Don’t look at last images of Lt. Kasasbeh

EDITORIAL — Thank you to all the media who refused to show videos or images of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.

Lt. Al-Kasasbeh was captured by ISIS insurgents when his jet went down near Raqqa, Syria in December. Since then, Jordan has tried to secure his release; now, the video shows that he was executed in a most cruel fashion a month ago.

The video is intended as propaganda, a tool to instil fear in those who would stand up against ISIS. Reports say it is graphic, and horrific, showing the hostage standing in a cage and being ignited.

Such barbarity is impossible for us to comprehend or explain, but it’s very real. It proves the capacity of human beings to be cruel.

Often, media can’t resist portraying the worst things that humans inflict on one another, or have inflicted upon them by circumstance. There are two reasons for this: one is that sensationalism “sells newspapers”; another is that the public has a right to know the truth.

The latter puts a terrible obligation on the shoulders of the media but, in this case, many have chosen to make a sensitive, ethical decision by not showing the video or still photos and, therefore, not giving the terrorists what they want.

However, a scan of online sources shows that many have succumbed, and are publishing images of the last tormented moments of Lt. Al-Kasasbeh. They only add to the indignity and cruelty.

Stop it. Refuse to show it. Refuse to look at it. Let’s remember good, not evil. Remember Lt. Al-Kasasbeh in this photo, proud and strong, not the one of him in that cage, as the flames consume him.