Quote:
Originally posted by Skunk:
Al Jazeera went ahead with the screening of the footage of the dead children because it believes that war should not be sanitised. Western media is keen to show things being blown up - they tend not to like to show the aftermath. Why not? If you don't show the consequences, you only tell half the story.
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Sorry skunk, but I'll have to disagree.
When it comes to non-war news I don't need to see the bodies of the victims of motor vehicle accidents lying beside the road in pools of blood in order to believe there was an accident and that families will never be the same. I don't have to see the charred remains of a 6 year old's body to know she died in a house fire and that the guy who pulled her out will see that image in his mind for the rest of his life. I don't have to see the decapitated body of a farm worker whose head was removed by a piece of farm equipment to understand the horror of his death and the disbelief of his friends. I don't need to see the swollen, discolored, and disfigured body of a drowning victim found 2 weeks after they drowned to know they've been in the water so long they are decomposing. I don't need to see pieces of skull and brain embedded in the living room wall of a home to believe that someone blew there brains out by sticking a shotgun in their mouth.
These type images are sensationalism plain and simple and are rarely shown on American television (one of the few forms of sensationalism avoided here I must add). These things certainly grab the headlines and are reported over and over and over in the media, but the bodies are respectfully covered, and that's NOT sanitizing the incident.
The same thing goes for war casualties. I don't need to see the dead, disfigured, and disabled bodies of innocent Iraqis to know there are civilians causalities and to see the
price of war. I also don't need to see dead coalition soldiers laying where they were killed with their faces plainly visible and their eyes still open and with dried blood running in a line from a hole in their heads to understand the price they paid.
Al-Jazeera has a lot of good things going for it, but photos like these, the propaganda footage of POWs and dead coalition soldiers, and the failure to report the Iraqi army's and paramilitary's consistent use of human shields aren't included in that list.
[ 04-03-2003, 06:35 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]