The boston globe printed pictures of soldiers raping iraqi prisoners, or so they claimed. what soon came back, however, was that these photos... emailed to an interest group by undisclosed members of an islamic nation and then submitted to the globe who printed them with little or no research... were in fact merely images taken from a hardcore pornography website.

so, what punishments should be levied on american news agencies which violate the journalism code of ethics in order to sell a story?

1) if no soldiers have died, a large fee should be levied against them

2) if soldiers have died as a result of their printing, they should have a choice of being forced to a) pay a large settlement to the families of the dead or b) have their editor in cheif set their building on fire and the whole staff watch their building burn to the ground.

Without a link to the investigation? you havn't given us much to go on - so I'll err on the side of caution and say that there is no case to answer.

However, I will say this - a number of *actual* rape photos taken during the war in Bosnia found their way on to porn sites - there is sadly a market for such stuff. But on the upside at least two former rapists found the circulation of the photos backfired - when they were produced at their trial in the Hague ...

Publication on a porn website does not always mean that they are fabricated - the disgusting imagery that comes from child porn is real by definition, is it not?

[ 05-16-2004, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]

duly noted skunk, the addy is:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,114578,00.html


but if you trust me enough i cut and pasted the relevant section from fox news in regards to this story:

New Allegations of Abuse?

The Boston Globe has reported new allegations that U.S. soldiers in Iraq raped local women -- complete with a photo of a Boston legislator and a political activist displaying graphic photographs of the alleged rapes. Problem is, according to the Boston Herald, the graphic photos are neither real nor from Iraq... they're staged and from a hardcore, adult Website.

Because of their suspicions, Herald editors refused to run any of the photos themselves. The Globe has since issued an apology, and now says its photo "did not meet ... standards for publication," and notes that "the purported abuse portrayed had not been authenticated." The Globe did not address the specific charges about where the photos came from.

Oh dear, it's not a good week for the media. Was good of the Herald to not run it, although you have to wonder if that was due to a decision to "take the moral high ground" vs the rival paper.

As for the globe, I guess whoever gave the photo's the OK should get the sack. I haven't seen any of the photos in world media yet, so with luck the damage outside of the US won't have been that great.

In cases where soldiers are killed as a direct and proven result of publishing fake photos, i would love to see manslaughter charges. Although I realise that might be a little unrealistic.

That would/should only possible if you knowingly published photos that you knew to be fake. And of course, if you go down that path, you will have to explore what happens when you publish a fake dossier of WMD knowing that to be a fake - which led to a proven great loss of life. Blair has much to fear from your calls for bloood ;)

In any event, the Globe has published an apology and the matter is closed with regards to the photos. As far as the rape claims are concerned, there is an ongoing investigation into the alleged rape of family members of detainees at detention facilities in Iraq - best leave the investigation to make its conclusion before demanding retribution from either accuser or accused, wouldn't you say?

Anyone want to go into business doing post-retirement planning and secondary career planning for sacked journalists?

yeah, they printed an appology... the matter isnt closed.

we're talking about LIVES at stake. their screw up, something that all the other media agencies noticed, could have cost human lives. exactly how many lives is one good story worth?