What to show and what not to show. Those are the questions these days when it comes to images of war and capture, torture, and even a beheading.
The now-familiar photos of naked Iraqi prisoners being abused by their American military guards at Abu Ghraib prison was a story broken by CBS, and now we know that there are photos and even videos that are far worse.
We have yet to see them as this goes to press, but as the originals were leaked by whistleblowers and others, I think we’ll see more. Your Congress has already had a private showing of the evidence, and heaven knows, there are more leaks in Washington than Charlotteans playing football in the SEC.
Several senators, speaking on condition of anonymity, said photos of sexual intercourse were among images the Pentagon screened for them in a top-secret room in the Capitol. At least some of them appeared to depict consensual sex involving US military personnel, they added.
Others showed military dogs growling at prisoners, as well as pictures of Iraqi women forced to show their breasts, the senators said. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colorado, said, “I don’t know how the hell these people got into our army.”
Clearly, the juxtaposition of the public’s right to know with a presidential campaign that would prefer you rather not know is an interesting one. It’s a familiar debate that grows odder by the minute in our culture of violence. We spawn Columbine killers but defend gun rights. We pour billions into the coffers of moviemakers and video game makers who make bucks off blood and gore. And now, we’ve got the real thing, an ongoing war, but a few TV stations refused to air the recent Nightline program that gave all the names of the war dead one night.
Untold thousands Googled Nick Berg’s name to see a real beheading, one much gorier than Daniel Pearl’s, but many don’t want to see coffins or funerals on TV of US soldiers killed in Iraq.
Which way do we really want it? Or are we in a time of such division that journalists should just let the chips fall where they may and do their jobs by showing the images of war? Is it the public’s right to know, or the right to ignore truth when it’s convenient?
Stay tuned.
E-mail at Shannon.Reichley@cln.com
This article appears in May 19-25, 2004.
