Media Outlets Won't Show Beheading Video (Media Hypocrisy Alert)

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 5/11/04 | By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

[Wolfstar]

NEW YORK - Video of an American civilian beheaded by an al-Qaida-affiliated group was deemed too gruesome to air by many media outlets Tuesday, including some prominent networks in the Arab world.

Several television networks, including CNN and MSNBC in the United States, showed pictures of a bound and frightened Nick Berg, with five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks standing behind him.

The video, posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site, went on to show the men cutting Berg's head off and then holding it before the camera. Berg's body was found in Baghdad on Saturday.

Many media outlets likened it to the video of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's 2002 execution. In both cases, snippets of the video with the victim still alive were widely shown, but none of the actual killing.

"The news story itself is strong enough," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for Al-Jazeera television, an Arabic-language satellite station based in Qatar. "To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency."

One of Al-Jazeera's competitors, the Arab news station Al-Arabiya, showed a brief snippet without the beheading.

The ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast networks said they did not plan to show anything beyond the opening shot of Berg alive on their evening news programs.

"It's a pretty clear call for us," said Jon Banner, executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight." "I think the viewer will understand what happened to Mr. Berg. They won't have to sit through the graphic images."

Steve Capus, executive producer of NBC's "Nightly News," said it was one of the worst things he had ever seen.

"I saw it from start to finish and I wish I didn't have to," Capus said. "It's a horrifying, sadistic act of murder that is drawn out."

Peter Koeleman, director of photography at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, said it was chilling enough just to see pictures of Berg sitting before his captors.

"We always say, `What if his family member lives here?'" Koeleman said. "It's such a cruel thing they did to him. There's so much impact in seeing him helplessly sitting there, it sent shivers down my spine. I didn't need to have it in my face."

Similarly, Bob Keane, a managing editor at Newsday on New York's Long Island, said the newspaper would not show images of the beheading.

"The story is gruesome enough," Keane said. "We'll leave much of it to people's imaginations. If people are curious, they can go to the Web site."

Associated Press Television News, which provides news pictures to 500 subscribers worldwide, distributed video of the full beheading. The video was preceded by a printed warning that lasted a full minute: "Warning! Man is beheaded on camera, extremely graphic footage."

APTN is told repeatedly by subscribers to provide them with as much news material as possible, and let the individual stations decide for themselves what to air, said Sandy MacIntyre, APTN's head of news.

The material was not included in a separate news feed that some stations put directly on the air, MacIntyre said. The AP works as both a wholesaler of news to its members and also disseminates news to the public itself.

[rwfromkansas]

Doesn't show the head actually getting cut off, just it about to happen.

This video showed it happen.

That said, it is newsworthy and should be aired with a disclaimer that it is graphic.

[rintense]

Add Saddam to that list and I'm with ya.

[rwfromkansas]

Website down.

[backhoe]

It's grim stuff, but we need to face facts- we are dealing with savages and religious fanatics... absolutely the most lethal combination of bad traits. Ignoring it only means it will come to our shores, malls, schools, and homes faster than it already will.

[TexKat]

Four guys from Blackwater (they don't even get named in the news)

Yes they were named. Their brothers were on some of the cable news networks.

[Two-Bits]

Trust me when I say if we behead a terrorist. It would be on the 6 o'clock news. I bet my life on it.....

[Wolfstar]

Seems to have been weeks, but I don't know for sure.

[FastCoyote]

This was not a beheading, an execution by sword done by the Japanese or even the Saudis is swift. This is animal butchery. If it were shown, there would be a call for our troups to just nuke them all.

That's eventually what will happen, it is a case of us versus them. At some point, self survival instincts will kick in even for the pinkos.

[crusty codger]

You have stated/copied the ultimate truth my friend. Unless we win this war in Iraq, We will be back in the 7th Century.

[headsonpikes]

This is animal butchery.

The animals were doing the butchery.

Heads on pikes!

[Lauren BaRecall]

I agree!

You might find this related thread interesting:

"I guess Limbaugh gets a rush out of violence"

The liberal press is playing politics, for sure.

[Lauren BaRecall]

This man was not kidnapped because of the prison scandal. He was already kidnapped. The prison scandal gave his captors a stage to frame his execution.

Ditto.

[SealSeven]

Too bad an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth does not apply to these times.
Im PI**ED.
Show the vid to the public- This is the enemy, people. This is what we are up against. We do not need to hide this from people (out of sight, out of mind). This is reality-

[JLAGRAYFOX]

I viewed the video in total, and it breaks my heart to see a young American die like this. These people are animals and should be treated accordingly. The people that are getting short changed are the American public. They should demand to see this entire video and realize what they and their children will face if a moron like John Kerry is elected President. We are losing this war because of the enemies within the USA (John Kerry & the "traitor" Democrat Party). Vote Democrat and then watch an Arab terrorist parade around with your loved ones heads or a daggar plunged into the stomach of your pregnant wife!!!! You will have no one to blame but yourself!!! You have had plenty of fair warning!!!! The handwriting is on the wall. This current "traitor" Democrat Party must be totally destroyed this November or America is toast. We are in a full blown war. And......anyone that does not believe that Saddam and Bin Laden brought about 911 is not all there!!!

[rbmillerjr]

This is such CRAP.

The media didn't have a problem showing the SVietnamese Officer blowing the head off of a Viet Cong. If it helps their viewpoint they will show graphic images.

Media, liars.

[faithincowboys]

That SOB Rather has blood on his hands. I am absolutely sickened that he won't show us the Berg video.

[oceanview]

even Fox News will not show the video. They have given Tim Russert 20 minutes on H&C tonight. What the hell for? WHy give a guy who has two news networks at his disposal all this air time on FNC?

I am getting more sick of FNC by the day.

[faithincowboys]

Me too. Fox News should show the tape--if we are going to be demoralized and detoured by the endless Abu Ghraib scandal, then the media also owes us the Berg tape. We need the whole story, not just the one that best fits the Leftist anti-american agenda.

[festus]

Without trying to start an argument, can you not see the difference between a naked guy on a leash and someone's head being cut off. If the media was showing this video people would be screaming in rage that it was corrupting their children

And without arguing I'd suggest that is exactly what needs to happen. Until America wakes up and realizes just how evil this evil we are fighting is we are doomed. The sooner we get the people screaming in rage the better.

And as to corrupting the kids. How bout giving them a reality check. Most will see this and worse by the time they are 12 on Cable TV.