The Video

The leadership of the NFL has denied watching the video of football star Ray Rice punching his fiance unconscious, although we now know that they had a copy of the video for months. NFL stands for National Football Liars. 

Many shallow TV commentators have said, Why would anyone need to see the video of the punch? We already knew what Ray Rice had done. How would a video add anything?

The answer is that we are a visual species.  Of all our senses, seeing is by far the most central. We say that seeing is believing, not that hearing or reading is believing. If we want to indicate that we understand something we've been told, we say, "I see."  We don't say, "I smell." Many people, I suspect, hoped that Ray Rice had only slapped or shoved his bride-to-be. Maybe the whole thing was kind of accidental. But once they saw the video, television viewers faced the facts. That is more than district attorney and NFL officials did when they watched the video and then let Ray Rice off with a pat on the wrist. (Ray Rice sold tickets; he made the Liars a lot of cash.)