The Abyss of Observation Alone asked for ethical interpretation of this situation. My response was emphatic:
Jay: an offer: to go out one night with Bosnian Serb snipers and see for yourself what they do.
A reporter-voyeur is a voyeur, not a reporter.
In the end, nothing is "news" but what is useful. Nothing is "useful" but what civilizes. And what "civilizes" isn't abdication of understanding what civilizes.
That doesn't leave you blind to understanding others. Seneca (50 AD) always read the opposition -- either to learn to do something better or to learn to defend against something. But one can learn about others short of participating in their violence.
Last November, I wrote about "Concentric Circles":
... all we are about is manufacturing civilization, for our own safety's sake.
Note: I explained more in the PressThink comments under Jay's essay.
