Despite working in a trade that, at times, has been about as well-respected as ambulance-chasing lawyers, thousands of people throughout the world mourned the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl last week.
It is hard to say what set this person apart from others who died since Sept. 11. Perhaps it was because we got to know him. We learned about his life and the people he left behind, which made his death seem more tragic.
For me, it was just reading about him and the articles he had written. It also was about looking around the newsroom that I work in and realizing that, a few years from now, the same thing could happen to any one of us.
Journalism has fallen from its renaissance when Woodward and Bernstein were household names known as champions of democracy. Since then, those who practice it have digressed into a sensationalist lot with questionable ethics and story selection.
But while striving to accurately cover a part of the world that many Americans have long misunderstood, Daniel Pearl brought grace and dignity back to a field that desperately could use the face of a simple hero fighting for some of the purest virtues of democracy by doing his job.
We may not always get it right. We may not always be the best. But so many that I know in this field or who apsire to join it long to mirror the virtues exemplified by Daniel Pearl. I can only hope that we live in a world safe enough for them to continue doing just that, speaking for those who don't have a voice and sharing the stories that make us laugh, cry or, if we're really lucky, do both.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Iliana Lim¢n
Editor in chief
