h a l f b a k e r yWhy did I think of that?
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Situations sometimes arise where it is unfeasible to report on a particular issue because the reporters are afraid of reprisals against their families or themselves. Examples are in countries with oppressive regimes and reporting on organised crime.
Two possible approaches exist. A person can issue
a threat as a warning to someone who knows too much, or they can actually kill them or their loved ones.
In order for this to happen, the threat has to be issued for it to be a deterrent, so the person making the threat has to suspect the person knows something they "shouldn't". There is an easy way around this: kamikaze journalism. Before reporting on an issue whose revelation may endanger their own or others' lives, the journalist, preferably one with no dependents, undertakes to commit suicide, voluntarily, before doing so. Hence the information gets out there, is publicised by the suicide of the journalist, and no threat would be effective.
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Annotation:
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As a career choice, it seems a bit limiting. |
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You do it after quite a while, once you are filled with self-loathing, cynicism and having a mid-life crisis. |
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Life crisis then. Well, some people think the mid-life one is a myth and that they are scattered liberally through life, as with the quarter-life for example, or even that it's just what life is like from birth to death. This might be an answer because you'd then see your life as purposeful or you wouldn't bother to kill yourself. |
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At least it might give already suicidal people something to do before they kill themselves. |
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This sounds instinctively ridiculous, but upon reflection there is a utilitarian logic to it that should be considered for the benefit of the world! [bun power] |
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I worry that someone in opposition will spin-doctor the event to pretend that the journalist committed suicide out of shame about his work. This way also loses the martyrdom aspect of having the bad guys do the killing. I'm bunning even though this is a "let's all", as what it proposes we all do is commit suicide. |
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[baconbrain], i also thought that, but it would depend on where that information originated, i.e. how much the public trusted the source. For instance, a corrupt regime not supported by the government of a country where the news story is being read isn't likely to be influential. However, this isn't a "let's all", since, perhaps controversially, i'm not recommending all journalists commit suicide. |
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[boysparks], the issue isn't so much the danger you put yourself in so much as the risk to your children, partner, parents, whomso. Your own murder is a less important risk, and a spin really can be put on that - e.g., "she went postal and had to be shot". |
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[+] for an idea that may prove useful, but would reduce the number of journalists on the planet. |
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For some reason, many people i used to know have now become journalists. One of them is a TV newsreader. I don't particularly want them to die. |
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Evidently the thing to do will be to hold some information back - to be released if "something happens". |
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I think that a journalist who is capable of unearthing a reprisal laden issue is too valuable a person to waste, by suicide or murder. |
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...I wanted journalists that hijacked a radio stations with explosives strapped to them or something... |
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(thinks of kamikaze pilots) |
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