"The horror, the horror"

Chinese editor, Wu Xianghu, who has been in hospital since he was attacked, in October, by more than 50 policemen has died of his injuries today, the BBC reports. Wu's attack follows publication, by his paper, of a story that exposed police were charging "illegal bicycle fees," as well as implying an atmosphere of underlying corruption.

Wu had been suffering from a liver problem, for the past few months, which doctors claim was exacerbated by the intense beating he received at the hands of the police. Liver and kidney failure appears to be the cause of death, according to a reporter for a Chinese television news station.

While local media, in China, have reported widely on the initial attack on Mr. Xianghu, as well as a rash of beating, and coercion cases by police against journalists, they have been conspicuously quiet about his death.

Ann Cooper, a spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Journalists, released a statement saying that "The government must ensure the safety of the working press." Indeed, and this goes for the government in our country, as well as China.

That we can sit back, in America, with a remote control in one hand, a bag of cashews in the other, and watch Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Christian Monitor, cry her eyes out, as well as the brutal slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, four years ago, and not call out against "the horror, the horror" that is American apathy speaks volumes about our descent into the heart of darkness, too.