The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33288   Message #442445
Posted By: Gervase
17-Apr-01 - 09:45 AM
Thread Name: Timothy McVeigh
Subject: RE: Timothy McVeigh
Yes, of course he's a bastard; an appalling, grinning moral pygmy with no sense of remorse. But two wrongs don't make a right, and the idea of broadcasting the second wrong to the world is obscene. Obscene, but not surprising.
For, as the great Henry Louis Mencken said, "No-one ever went broke under-estimating the taste of the public"
And that applies as much to ISPs trying to flog footage of McVeigh's death around the net as to the yellow press in Mencken's day. I fear there will always be a market for such stuff. I'm sure if the rights were available, Rupe would have Sky TV broadcasting public hangings at Tyburn - and they'd top the ratings.
Sadly humanity never seems to show much humanity en masse, preferring Old Testament to New Testament concepts of vengeance and "justice" - witness the opinion polls in the UK for capital punishment.