[Read "The Reporter They Left Behind," by Mariane Pearl.]
So Daniel Pearl dies as the employee of the Wall Street Journal and they have their lawyer tell his widow that its "her case," not theirs? This from one of the most powerful papers in the world? My heart goes out to Mariane Pearl. I am incensed at the sheer cowardice the Journal is displaying. How dare they? There is so much they could be doing to help her and help themselves, for the longer this man's murderers remain unconvicted, the longer every reporter is in danger.
I will pray that Mariane gets justice and I will not read the Wall Street Journal until they get a set of morals.
-- Mari Miller-Lamb
At the end of her moving article about the Wall Street Journal's failure to defend one of its own, even after he was murdered while at work, Marianne Pearl, who is doing what the Journal should at her own expense, writes:
"My determination ... reflects my own loyalty to the values I shared with Danny. My loyalty is stronger than the obstacles I have and will encounter."
Moved as I am by her plight, I'm surprised that only now is she realizing that the Journal's parent corporation is also showing loyalty to its own values -- the bottom line. That is what is dictating all of the choices that Daniel Pearl's widow finds so distressing.
-- Steve Turtell
Much as I empathize with Mariane Pearl over the death of her husband, I ask myself why her plight is deemed front-page worthy. Thousands of Iraqi civilians and hundreds of coalition soldiers have been killed in the latest war in Iraq; each and every one a human being. So was Daniel. So is Mariane.
The prominent placement of her article suggests that Daniel's life is more noteworthy than those in cold graves -- all of whom were killed in suppressing the very kind of terrorism and anti-American sentiment that led to Daniel's death. I find it offensive for Salon to publish her piece without extending the same courtesy to the wives of casualties, many of whom are just as pregnant and devastated as Mariane.
The Wall Street Journal serves to echo conservative ideology. Conservatives have no interest in why and how Daniel was killed. It would require examination of how their thieving in foreign nations has fermented hatred for the U.S. and for the individuals who represent it.
-- Christopher Jones
Mariane Pearl's heart-wrenching story continues and, apparently, with no help from the Wall Street Journal, the very publication which sent Daniel Pearl to India and Pakistan, where he was murdered. Sadly, I am not surprised by this revelation. The Wall Street Journal, like other huge corporate entities in America, is concerned first with profits, second with more profits, and third with those who affect their profits. Their minimal efforts to assist Ms. Pearl in uncovering the truth and finding justice are indicative of the empty moral state of the country in which we live today. No one cares about justice, truth, redemption, compassion, understanding. The bottom line is the only thing that matters and that which obstructs this end is pushed aside as fanatical or, worse yet, bothersome. I wonder if a larger revolution looms in America's future, one that threatens to overturn the very soul and nature of its citizenry. Perhaps only after this will families like the Pearls find justice and peace. Until then, we should all say a prayer for Mariane Pearl and try our best to learn from the Herculean strength of her character.
-- Charles McClellan
I, like so many people, closely followed the Danny Pearl story in 2002 and wept with sadness and anger at his horrific fate. I saw Mariane Pearl's interview with Jim Lehrer and found her to be both amazingly beautiful and amazingly courageous.
This past Christmas I received her book, "A Mighty Heart," which I read in a matter of days. Again, I found the story -- their story -- compelling and moving. I was thrilled to see her byline in Salon but not thrilled at this latest chapter in her story.
It seems tragic that the Wall Street Journal has the belief that if they act as if the problem doesn't exist, then it (and Mariane) will go away. Thank you, Salon, for giving Mariane Pearl the opportunity to expose the Journal's shameful and shabby treatment of her (and, by extension, her late husband's memory), and their pathetic abrogation of their responsibility to see justice done in the case of Danny Pearl's murderers. I look forward to updates from Salon on Mariane Pearl's quest for justice.
-- Ilona Fucci
Mariane Pearl's account of the Wall Street Journal's lack of support for bringing her husband's killers to justice is both frustrating and expected. A corporate entity always looks after its own interests before the human interests of the people who comprise it. But I can't understand how the individual people of the company, from top to bottom -- the journalists, editors, receptionists, layout designers, pressmen, drivers -- don't feel outrage and a compelling need to push the company to follow through on the company's promises to do everything they can to press Danny's side of the prosecution. After all, next time it could be their families needing that support.
-- Gary Goldberg
Hmmm. The Wall Street Journal acting like the corporations they cover? Ignoring any sense of ethics or moral obligation to the pregnant widow of their slain worker? Putting convenience before duty and responsibility?
Shocking? Hardly. The Wall Street Journal is the mouthpiece of the American corporate world and frankly, ethics are not high on the list of priorities in that world. What's sad, I think, is that corporations don't care anymore even about how they look. Even appearances don't matter anymore. When that is the case, there's just no hope at all for issues of substance -- issues like your sense of duty and responsibility to the widow of one of your own.
-- Alice Schmid
In my opinion, Ms. Pearl needs to stop believing her husband was more special or different than the hundreds of Americans or Iraqis that have died, and do so daily.
Mr. Pearl met his grisly demise through professional exertions to get a "scoop" on behalf of a for-profit journalistic institution -- nothing more. He made an unwise choice, and this sadly cost him his life.
Those actions are not heroic, but foolish, and please forgive me, rooted in narcissism: for an openly Jewish man with a pregnant wife back home to seek out a story in that kind of gnashing, anti-Semitic underbelly seems inexplicable otherwise.
Tragedy far in excess of this awful vignette swirls around us daily. Ms. Pearl and those who believe somehow her late husband's voice should resonate louder than the G.I. killed today seem horribly conceited.
-- John Fetterman
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