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.

[cake_crumb]

" '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.' "

Is this the same al Jazeera that had no compunction about showing executed American prisoners of war? The same one invited to the party?

Out of the realm of decency my foot. You people just don't want your public to make a COMPARISON.

[spunkets]

al-jazeera: "To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency."

Sure, cover it up clymers. It doesn't fit your wack job propaganda does it.

[backhoe]

No guarantees, but try these:
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/iraq2vediom.wmv
There is a copy here in case other links are overwhelmed:
http://www.soulsurvivors.net/Public/iraq2vediom.wmv
http://drive.hostnow.biz/iraq/iraq2vedio.ram
http://drive.hostnow.biz/iraq/iraq2vediow.zip
http://drive.hostnow.biz/iraq/iraq2vedio.zip
http://drive.hostnow.biz/iraq/iraq2vediom.zip

[ken5050]

I agree with you, but rememebr 9/11..at first we saw the shots of the people jumping from the top of the WTC....those were long shots..no details..you could easily see they were humans, but no facial details, and you didn't have to show the impact..Yet, mysteriously, withn a feww minutes, it was a magical" unanimous consensus of ALL the newts, every last one..to stop showing the shots, and the videotape.. Why?

[LonghornFreeper]

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. It was pretty easy for the media to blur out private parts in the prisoner photos, what are they supposed to do about a beheading.

You know as well as I do that if any American TV channel showed this they would lose their broadcast license almost immediately. The FCC and the American public would not tolerate it. Would you want to see your daughter or son beheaded on national TV. So stop complaining at the media about something that is not their fault.

[OpusatFR]

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

What? Compared to Iraqi prisoners masturbating or naked?

Explain please, what was the "one" of the worst things?

You media types who parlayed this into a "get Bush" moment without thinking of the consequences signed this man's death warrant. Al-Queda devils killed him, but by hyping this prison humiliation out of all bounds of common sense, you gave the Demons a good excuse. Now, how many more of these civilians and military they captured are going to die?

And will there be a Congressional investigation into just how bad Al-Quada acted against the Geneva conventions or against Red Cross guidelines? Of course not. After all, Al-Quada and Bin Laden aren't running against the Democrats.

[GOP_Initiative]

Because kids watch primetime news sometimes.

[gitmo]

If people start spreading the internet links, the television media will feel left out and will show it. Click here or here or for a zipped version click here. Homeland security site warns "It is a gruesome video, and will almost certainly offend you and make you angry"

[newheart]

Folks, This video does not need to be shown. To show it would only appeal to certain pornographic sensibilities. The fact is, that by no showing it the effect will be much stronger in two ways. First, because human imagination tends to make up even worse than the actual images would show (not that they aren't sickening and heinous). The slasher movies where the action takes place off camera are far more frightening.

Second, and this is the best reason...

The fact that the media will not show it absolutely proves the case that this barbarism is orders of magnitude worse than the prisoner humiliation images. To show the tape would, thanks to our desensitized viewinng mindset, tend to place the prisoner humiliation and the beheading on an equal par.

[wtc911]

Welcome and agreed. There are thousands of pix that the media claims it has that show more serious activity in the Iraq prisons. They have not shown them either.

I suspect that most here have never seen even the aftermath of murder, let alone the actual savagery of the act. Decent people who have seen the video all wish they had not. We don't need it in our living rooms, especially just to make our political point.

[gitmo]

Some network needs to show the Iraqi with panties on his head, and then this video. Ask which one is torture.

[fishtank]

bump

[cake_crumb]

"Anyway, I hope this gets good coverage as well - and I hope that the media doesn't claim that 'this is the result of prison abuses.' "

Welcome to Non-Lurker Land. It won't and they will.

[fishtank]

The news stations can put the video on their websites.

BUt it must be publicized as much as:

911

and

D Pearl.

[Let's Roll]

I like the way you think - that's what we need to stress ad nauseum* the way the media played and replayed the "tortures".

*No way is harrassment/humiliation the moral equivalent of beheadings, acid baths, rape rooms, wood chippers etc.

Of course in the muslim world, beheading a subhuman infidel is the equivalent of swatting a fly while islamic toenails clippings are considered holy relics.

[Brit_Guy]

What scares me is that some people actually seem pleased that these terrorist scum have done this as it makes the abuse of iraqis by allied troops seem less severe in comparison.

You are of course right - there is no comparison between cutting off someones head and simply humiliating and scaring someone.

However - we expect terrorists to conform to the lowest standards - we expect our troops to perform to higher standards. It is our troops who have surprised us - ther terrorists do what we expect. That is why ANY abuses of individuals in the name of the fight for freedom demand attention.

[jonno]

My God...

[Gil4]

I don't think the decision to stop showing the people jumping from the WTC was particularly difficult, either. The first few probably slipped through before they realized someone might learn a relative had died by watching him/her jumping from a window in real-time on TV.

I haven't seen the prison photos or video yet (at least nothing overly shocking), but I would be surprised if the images were as disturbing the things we are comparing them to.

[PokeyJoe]

We should also Pardon the soldiers. I'm not sure that I want to watch this video....

[weegee]

The media is aware that the footage they aired of the prisons has motivated Islamofascist attacks.

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.

CBS' website carried the disclaimer that the videotape could be a fake. Never mind that it isn't (his decapitated body was discovered Saturday). Never mind that the media has been largely silent on the fake photos of abuse that have run in the world's media. Those fake photos have done a lot to stir up violence. The genuine photos gave credence to the more explicit fakes.