Nick Berg was dead before he was beheaded

That’s what forensics expert Joseph Bosco concludes, and I’m perplexed why the mainstream media have been silent on the subject. When the video was first discussed, our venerated journalists at Fox told us over and over how Berg shrieked as his head was slowly and agonizingly sawed off. Looking at the video, which I finally did, I’d have to conclude the shrieks were edited in.

This may not be very significant. Whether Berg was alive or not, the action was grotesque and disgusting and unforgivable. But our professional media are supposed to be more inquisitive than this, and their silence on the subject is peculiar. I’d also like to hear more about how they can be so sure it was al Zarkawi who wielded the knife.

The Discussion: 11 Comments

Plenty of other things in that video too make it pretty sure a fake.

Not even a good fake.

May 25, 2004 @ 8:23 pm | Comment

Richard, I know why you didn’t want to see it, but it makes your analysis better if you’ve actually seen the damn thing.

Otherwise, how can you support your points?

Although, with things like this, we’re all going on assumptions, I think.

May 25, 2004 @ 8:27 pm | Comment

Doug, you misunderstood — I said in the post that I finally did see it. So no assumptions.

May 25, 2004 @ 8:31 pm | Comment

Time to readThe Village Voice and its article on Nick Berg. Interesting read about the paranoia in America, and how Berg plays into it.

Why hasn’t the press written about Nick Berg having been decapitated post-mortem? Probably the same reason Daniel Pearl’s status of living at the time of his beheading video isn’t widely discussed. Pearl was already dead when they filmed, or to be more exact re-filmed, his beheading.

My personal favorite is the trouting out of the “wedding party” – when are the terrorists going to get creative? They have used the “wedding party” excuse against Israel many times. Never actually turns out to be a wedding, though ….

May 25, 2004 @ 11:10 pm | Comment

No, I did understand.

You were making statements beforehand, and that’s what I was referring to them.

I was, in some occluded way, praising you for finally seeing the video that can support your claims.

So, NOW there are no assumptions.

May 26, 2004 @ 7:44 am | Comment

Jerremy, the Pearl video wasn’t staged in a manner comparable to Berg’s. I saw both. With Pearl, they showed someone slitting his throat, and then they showed someone holding up his head. With Berg, they tried to make it seem like they were cutting off his head while he was alive, complete with faked screams. It was pure theater. And at least some in the news media reported, as a matter of fact, that his head was sawed off while he was alive and screaming. That’s my main objection — we were given misinformation by the media and they should tell the truth about it.

May 26, 2004 @ 9:48 am | Comment

Presumably, showing the (faked) footage was playing right into their hands, too. Which is odd, considering how InstaPuppy and Sullivan slammed the media for not making a bigger deal out of it.

“Damn that liberal media, why won’t they air more terrorist propaganda snuff films???”

May 26, 2004 @ 7:21 pm | Comment

And now it is being said that Michael Moore has “unseen footage” of the Berg killing.

May 27, 2004 @ 4:38 pm | Comment

I heard about that, Doug — if it’s true, it’s certainly going to be interesting. Moore is a master of self-promotion, so if he really has the footage, I’m sure he’ll figure out a way to use it to maximum PR advantage (like stirring up yet more interest in his new flick).

May 27, 2004 @ 7:40 pm | Comment

So the media ran with a story before actually investigating it? Anyone shocked by one more digusting display of pure laziness please raise your hand – didn’t think there’d be too many. Do very many people really trust any of the media to actually tell the truth? All I read in the newspapers anymore are the Outdoor page, comics and the op/ed page. The latter two frequently being hard to tell apart.

May 31, 2004 @ 10:04 pm | Comment

i think tt we’re missing something here. when it comes to these kinda things, the media would be much more interested in sensationalism rather than the truth… mmm? =)

June 11, 2004 @ 8:58 pm | Comment

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.