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If we did the same, the drama we would miss would no doubt be riveting. Evil is riveting. From watching Hitchcock we know of the perverse, and fully human, enjoyment that comes from looking evil dead in the eye. But when the evil is real and the suffering actual, that enjoyment is tinged with shame, the kind of shame one experiences when exposed to pornography.
And like pornography, terrorist television, the graphic unfolding of evil on camera, sells. During the hostage crisis, network news ratings rose markedly. But this fascination has its price. Lot's wife fixed her gaze on evil and turned to salt.