What would you do?

It seems that all of my inspiration this semester is going to come from my writing class so here goes another one.

In my writing class today, we were talking about journalism, because journalism in itself is a kind of creative non-fiction. Anyway, we were suppose to have read this story by a BBC journalist named John Simpson. His story was about The Tiananmen Square Massacre in the early 90's. Im not entirely sure what the point of his story was but the point we focused on in class was should a journalist interfere with what s/he is reporting? and if so when is the time to interfere? There was a couple of different answers from around the class room, some people saying yes, others saying no, some saying it is dependent upon what the interference will do, if it will help or hinder the situation. In this particular case, John Simpson saved the life a solider the demonstrators were beating to death, he stopped a young man from killing the solider with a brick by beating his head in, a kind of death I would like to avoid at all costs. This idea of interference really got me thinking. Is it ok to interfere or should one let the events play out for the sake of history, the news, a good story, whatever the circumstances may be? I think had I been in a situation similar, watching lone soldiers being dragged out of their armed vechicle and beat to death, and not just to death but past death, once they were dead the demonstrators kept beating, until skulls cracked and brains fell out, until faces were unrecognizable, until there was nothing left but a bloody pulp of what use to be a human, I wouldnt have stopped it. My reasoning is different than for the sake of news. I wouldnt have stopped what was happening because I am a weak person, if the majority is doing it I wouldnt speak out, especially if I am the minority. I wouldnt have stopped just for fear of them turning on me. I probably never would have been there in the first place because I take the safe route. I have always taken the safe route and I will probably continue to take the safe route for the rest of my life. Living my life this way leaves me with tons of questions, what could have been? Would I have had more fun? Would the people around me have enjoyed themselves more and I contemplate all of these things until the next chance arises and I once again dont take the opportunity and end up doing it all again.....it is a vicious circle. Anyway I venture from my point. The main question I come on here to ponder, to ask hypothetically, rhetorically and literally, however you want to take it, is would you have stopped it? Would you have stopped a demonstrator from beating a solider to death? Would you have stopped filming when you saw people jumping out of the twin towers on 9/11? Would you have demanded that the helicopter pilot pick hurricane katrina surviors up? Or would you have thought this is history, news, a good story and let a solider die, watch people plundge to their deaths and leave people to die of starvation and dehydration?