Posted on 12/26/2004 11:54:23 AM PST by ckilmer
History and history in the making
A Belmont Club reader sent a link to the Associated Press Photo Managers site which contains guidance to editors on When to Run a Chilling Photo. The author, Naomi Halperin, begins by describing her reaction to a schoolteacher who balked at showing photographs of mutilated Americans hanging from the Fallujah bridge to her class.
One image, seen in many newspapers including The Morning Call, appeared when violence erupted in Fallujah and four American contractors were killed. ... The single letter that stands out in my mind was from a high school teacher who routinely brought the newspaper to her classroom to share with her students. She wrote: "After viewing the photo of the American soldiers hanging on the bridge in Iraq, I will no longer be bringing my paper to school to use for the classroom. The students were very upset and they wanted to know the names of the soldiers because they have relatives serving in our military. They wanted to know why the newspaper would show our soldiers' charred bodies hanging there in such disrespect. ...
My first reaction was to consider that some of her students she wanted to protect were the very age of many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq. I answered her letter the next day: "... Running a photo that we know will disturb folks is never an easy decision. ... After careful consideration we decided not to hide the truth, as brutal as it was. The image, very reminiscent of the dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia, was too important for the editors here at The Morning Call to ignore. It is a powerful photo. I suspect this particular picture will prove to be a historical flashpoint image that helps define the Iraqi conflict and who we are as a people. Perhaps in the future, you as an educator might be compelled to look at these tragic events as an opportunity for discussion. By keeping the paper from your students, you close the only window of the world for a lot of kids so I hope you will reconsider bringing your paper to the classroom. I know that you and I will probably never agree on this subject but I respect your views and will take it to heart."
Ms. Halperin, I think it is fair to say, is arguing it is the duty of editors to convey the truth, however painful; and that it was in the long-term interest of the teacher's students to have their eyes opened to the world as it is. But because the quest for the truth is often an adversarial process, it is not surprising to find accounts of the same event which cast a wholly different construction on things. Powerline printed an angry letter from reader Kevin O'Brien who charged that the AP behaved unethically in Fallujah and that their account of events is poisoned as a consequence.
AFP, AP and AP TV had advance notice of the murders of contractors in Fallujah last spring, so that they could position themselves on scene. ... Apparently the reporters were tipped to go to a specific location. They were not told exactly what would take place, but they knew it was going to be a terrorist action of some type. For security reasons, the terrorists give the reporters very little notice -- just enough to get there, if everything goes right. They were told exactly what street corner to be on, where they would be expected by and under the protection of the terrorists. ("If you're anywhere else, we can't guarantee your safety.") ... After the contractors were dead and their bodies looted, the reporters stayed and encouraged the mob that had gathered to mutilate the bodies. I am told by our Arabic speakers that they can be heard egging the youths on during the video of the mutilations. "Go ahead, cut him up. What are you afraid of?"
I have no idea if these charges are true; Mr. O'Brien's allegations would surely outrage many journalists working for the Associated Press. But why, in principle, should Mr. O'Brien's allegations be withheld from students where the photos of contractors should not? All of the arguments advanced by Ms. Halperin apply to the Powerline article as well. The obvious response would be that Mr. O'Brien's allegations are 'false' while the the picture of the contractors hanging like meat from the bridge is 'true', though a moment's reflection will show that one does not disprove the other. Yet as Ms. Halperin is at pains to point out, the real truth is not contained in the actual photograph but in is its larger signification. "The image, very reminiscent of the dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia, was too important for the editors here at The Morning Call to ignore. It is a powerful photo. I suspect this particular picture will prove to be a historical flashpoint image that helps define the Iraqi conflict and who we are as a people." One could argue that O'Brien is asking equally fundamental questions about who you trust to convey the news. Ultimately, the case for preferring the AP's account and dismissing Mr. O' Brien's rests upon an appeal to the authority of the AP brand name. It rests on trust. The public knows the AP and doesn't know Mr. O'Brien, hence it is the AP's account that represents the canon.
Yet ironically we do know Mr. O'Brien, who at least has a name, while we will probably never know the identity of the "brave Iraqi" photographer who captured the execution of Iraqi election worker on Haifa Street. Jack Stokes, the Associated Press director of media relations explained how that photographer was recruited.
Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to note, though, that the photographers are not "embedded" with the insurgents. They do not have to swear allegiance or otherwise join up philosophically with them just to take their pictures.
Because of the dangers inherent in this situation the AP believed photographer's the identity had to be protected. Salon quotes sources as saying "The photographer, whose identity the AP is withholding due to safety concerns, was likely 'tipped off to a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street' said the AP source, who was not at liberty to comment by name". A Belmont Club reader wonders who the photographer is being protected from since "he was allowed to not only photograph the executions, but also live to deliver them to be published" so "the terrorists already know who he is". Since they knew him well enough to send him the "tip" in the first place the reader's question seems perfectly reasonable.
And deserving of an answer. The Associated Press says it encourages questioning and wants the public to know the truth. In a press release dated December 14, 2004, AP CEO Tom Curley warned of the "trend toward more secrecy" and promised to resist it.
Curley and other media leaders have announced a 2005 initiative called "Sunshine Sunday-Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know" to foster a public dialogue on the importance of maintaining access to government information. ... "We ourselves need to be out there fighting for access," Curley said. ... Founded in 1848, The Associated Press is the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization, providing content to more than 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of 1 billion people around the world. Its multimedia services are distributed by satellite and the Internet to more than 120 nations.
The public right to classified information when the larger interest compels its release has been widely debated. It seems clear that the same standard should apply, in certain circumstances, to information about the way the news is obtained and prepared. Let the Sunshine in.
There can be no doubt that the Ba'athists in Iraq have learned their lessons well from General Vo Nguyen Giap, commander in chief of the North Vietnamese Army. They know that they never have to win a battle on the battlefield. They know that the war will be won or lost in the American news media, and in the hearts and minds of the American people.
If the American people can be convinced that it won't be worth the cost in American lives, they will elect some sort of spineless peace-at-any-cost freak like John Kerry to the White House, and our troops will be withdrawn. And so the Ba'athists are playing the Western media like a violin.
Ms. Halperin, I think it is fair to say, is arguing it is the duty of editors to convey the truth,....
I disagree that Ms Halperin is arguing for the conveyance of "truth", but rather propaganda. For a photograph that is out of true context to become a "flashpoint" that is used to elicit a discussion about "who 'WE' are as a people", is in this case is nothing more than a big lie. Islamic terrorists did the murder and mutilation of these unfortunate people with the full knowledeg and compliance of the press, NOT US troops. If anything, the events surrounding the photo-op for terrorists and journalists are an indictment of what the media has become and the people in it.
I do care about the US media serving as the bad guys propaganda arm. This has happened before, in Viet Nam, so as to turn victories on the battlefields into defeats on the homefronts because of the work of the US media. This has happened again with this bit of crummy crimnal street theatre that the AP has put on for the American public.
An editor using a stringer with 'special affiliations' to cover a war story in order to gain access is in the similar situation to a case officer using a local agent to penetrate a denied zone. It is well known that unless the case officer takes precautions to control the agent, keep his identity from the intelligence target and verify reports with collateral information, the source will be "played back" to the case officer. He will be fed a story.
The peculiar combination of the AP's methodology and the opaqueness of the news gathering and preparation process in this case could be tantamount to giving their 'special affiliations' stringers the license to produce, direct and distribute a news product. All the means of checking on its validity must use the same 'special affiliation' that produced the story in the first place and the circularity is complete.
No malice on the part of AP management need be involved. Incompetence and faulty methodology is another matter.
There have been many calls for intelligence reform. One shouldn't forget that the press is the public's 'spy agency'. It is not obviously better than the intelligence agencies it rightfully criticizes.
# posted by wretchard : 7:01 PM
http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004/12/sunshine-week-your-right-to-know.html
The second case is that AP photographer who stood by while terrorists shot election supervisers in the head. I said at the time that this photographer was effectively complicit with murder, and that is clearly the case, as now admitted by AP.
It's only too obvious that they are not protecting the photographer from the terrorists, who knew him and called him to notify him to be there. They are protecting him from the American people, who might object to the Associated Press's repeated complicity with murders in Iraq.
When this first happened, you could say that the photographer was complicit, because he failed to notify the victims or the authorities. When it happens repeatedly, then you can say that THE BIG BOSSES OF AP are complicit in murder, because they fail to discipline, investigate, or instruct their reporters about what they should do WHEN THEY KNOW THAT A MURDER IS ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE.
Yes, the boss of AP is effectively a murderer, and in the old days when murder was taken seriously he would have been arrested by now.
This would seem to be in contradiction with US State Dept. policy of leaving Syria alone in this conflict, but Syria is a supporting actor in the terrorism. Therefore, each time the Ba'athist's , or any other Islamic group for that matter, should attack an American force or a US trained Iraqi force, we should use respond with our long suit and bomb highways first, then any towns along the Iraqi-Syria border, in Syria. Tit for tat.
As you state in your post, the pressure on the US comes from the press, the pressure on the Islamic world comes from the sure and ruthless use of American air power. That's our weapon of terror and we should use it.
It would certainly be an appreciated gesture if the Mossad would quietly take care of AP bureau heads in European cities.
If the AP was concerned with the "truth" in running gruesome pictures, as opposed to propaganda, then for every car crash, violent murder, or workplace accident, they need to get up close to the victim, take a picture of the guts spilled out and the blood pooled all over the place, and then run it with the story. If they don't do that, then why do it for a military story? Oh, because it DEMORALIZES the supporters of the war. Now I get it.
Obviously neither do the photogs "embedded" with the US units. Given the video of the Marine shooting the Iraqi whom he had reason to believe was faking being injured and who the Marine suspected of being about to collect his virgins at that Marine and his buddies' expense.
Since we control everything up to the border, nominally at least, heavy artillery would do the job as well. Maybe some air for the harder targets, such as bridges and maybe tunnels, if such there be. A nice thermobaric bomb dropped at the entrance might suffice to bring down a tunnel, or failing that a bunker buster right through the roof of the tunnel.
I share that concern. Hence all the moaning, criticism and ingratitude from the Iraqis. I don't know if you've read Steven Vincent's 5 part series on the NRO (From his book "In the Red Zone" - Chpt. 4: "Resistance"). It's enlightening and very, very disturbing. If you've read David Pryce-Jone's "The Closed Circle", the Iraqi reaction to American "liberators" was sadly predictable....But nonetheless infuriating.
I agree except for the use of heavy artillery. I was an "Arty" Ofcr' and would prefer to not to expose my battery to unnecessary peril from the locals on the ground. Air power will do nicely, be it Predators, F-15's and F-18's. Sorta' like punishment from the direction of Allah.
Thanks for the heads up, I will give these a read.
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