Decius wrote:
] ] "Every time there is a tragedy or a war, an outcry
] ] follows about why newspapers choose to publish
] ] photographs of dead bodies. ... And yet tragedies need
] ] bodies. ... How can you not have photographs of dead
] ] bodies during a war?"
] ]
] ] The issue calls into question whether traditional media
] ] are practicing ethical journalism or censoring themselves
] ] when they choose to withhold certain images.
]
] The press grapples with concerns about graphic images.

Yeah, some people have an unnatural facination with death and dismemberment... so it goes. Dwelling on pictures of people getting blown up is unhealthy.

So is ignoring them. We have a serious problem in this country (at least) of ignoring uncomfortable topics or subjects.

For one, if you are going to support a war, while driving around your upper middle class neighborhood, in your Expedition, sporting bumper sticker warnings to Osama bin Laden and 63 faded american flag stickers, then you should be willing, possibly required, to look upon the results of that support. People die in wars. Innocent people. ALWAYS. If that's too much for you to handle, too fucking bad -- get a peace sign sticker and don't ever talk again, ever.

The media's totally hypocritical anyway. Or rather, they're not hypocritical, just motivated by money rather than journalism. They had no fucking problem at all showing graphic images of Usay and Qusay Hussein's bloody and ravaged corpses during dinner time with no advance warning that you might, possibly, want to remove your children from the room if you had any or, god forbid, change the channel. (I try daily to limit my anger at the puritanical bullshit which allows this but causes everyone to go of their stool if there's anything like a naked titty on the screen). The line between newsworthy and senselessly graphic is, possibly, non-trivial, but you know, thinking and making decisions is non-trivial, but it has to be done. I don't like seeing pictures of mass graves or land mine victims either, but I also don't like war, because wars generate those things. Sometimes you need to see uncomfortable shit to remind you -- of how lucky you are, relatively, or of how your actions and those of your government affect real actual people, or of what you believe.

RE: News media may withhold gruesome images, but Internet sets them free