--- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The image is available on their website for anyone who wants to see it. I think that the media isn't showing the murder out of respect for the families...just like it stopped showing people jumping from the WTC.
Let me think about the rest of it but respond to this.
I would argue that there's a very simple rule to
predict when the press will show a picture. If it's
likely to inflame the American public against their
enemies - the pictures don't get shown. If it's
likely to inflame the enemies of the US against us -
the "news value" of the pictures suddenly gets more
important, as in the case of the prison photos. Why? It seems to me that the answer to that is very simple.
Like (for example) a few people on this list, most
members of the elite media don't, in their heart of
hearts, believe that people outside the United States
act against us in anything but retaliation for our own
actions. Murdering Daniel Pearl wasn't because the
people who did it were Islamist fanatics bent on the
murder of Jews and Americans, but in retaliation for
the acts of the United States (see Robert Fisk's
articles at the time, for example). It's not that
they think that the terrorists are right, it's that
they think the terrorists have "understanable
grievances" and that the best thing we can do is
"understand why they hate us" and act differently so
as to appease our enemies.
Thus the photos of the torture - those create an important policy point. They (might) get the US to back away from Iraq and appease Islamist fanaticism - and that is pretty much what most members of the media think that we should do (note this is not condemnatory - there's a coherent argument to be made that this is, in fact, the correct policy. I don't agree with it, but it's not immoral or anything like that, it's just incorrect). So the photos get published. But showing people jumping from the World Trade Center - that's not about respect. That's because those photos are inflammatory - they are likely to remind Americans of the true horrors of what happened on September 11th (and you can already see people forgetting). So those photos become "too horrible to show."
Every time I see a statement that "the" reason that a person or organization did (or didn't do) something, I know that I'm about to hear someone grind their axe.
I reject that idea that there is "a reason" that we went to Iraq, that there is "a reason" that some goobers abused prisoners, that there is "a reason" that some other goobers beheaded Nick Berg.
There are lots of reasons that all of those things happen. Some of them are vile. Some are either justifiable or without justification depending on your point of view.
Disclaimer: I do not support terrorism, prisoner abuse, beheadings or pre-emptive wars.
Dave
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