Posted on 02/16/2006 7:47:48 AM PST by michigander
Abu Ghraib Images Spark Debate
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
February 16, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - A decision by an Australian television network to release more images of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has set off a debate over the willingness of many media organizations to carry the gruesome pictures when they chose not to publish controversial cartoons depicting Mohammed.
In explaining their decision not to reproduce the cartoons -- blamed for protests and violence in a number of Muslim countries -- some media representatives argued that doing so would unnecessarily inflame an already tense situation.
At a time the cartoon protests continue to cost lives, notably this week in Pakistan, Australia's "multicultural" SBS public broadcaster Wednesday night released video and still images of abuses at the prison three years ago.
SBS's Dateline program conceded before running the images that emotions over the Mohammed cartoon were "still running red-hot in the Islamic world."
"Despite the currently overheated international climate, we are showing them because they show the extent of the horror that occurred at Abu Ghraib," Dateline host George Negus said in introducing the segment.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday that publicizing more Abu Ghraib abuse pictures could "possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world" and endanger U.S. soldiers serving abroad.
...
Abu Ghraib versus cartoons
It is not clear yet whether the pictures released by SBS -- which the network reportedly obtained from sources in Iraq -- are the same as some of those the U.S. government wants to block.
Since appearing on the Australian channel on Wednesday the images, which include naked and bloodied detainees, have received prominent coverage in the Middle East, where Al-Jazeera television described them as "further acts of humiliation much stronger than those that were published before."
They have also appeared widely around the world, on television networks, in newspapers, and on media organizations' websites.
On its website CNN, like other broadcasters, not only used the pictures to illustrate its news story but also offered a "gallery" of the still pictures as well as an online video clip.
Conservative critics noted on web logs Wednesday that CNN, and many others, has in its coverage of the Mohammed cartoon controversy declined to show the pictures at the center of the crisis.
CNN runs a note after stories on the cartoon issue explaining that it is not doing so "because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself."
The Washington Post website has also run one of the SBS pictures, and took the opportunity to rerun earlier pictures obtained by the Post in 2004.
The Post is another U.S. media organization that did not run the Mohammed cartoons. Executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr. said earlier in explaining that decision: "'We have standards about language, religious sensitivity, racial sensitivity and general good taste."
In Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ran a "gallery" of the Abu Ghraib pictures under the respective headlines "The photos America doesn't want seen" and "Abu Ghraib misery the U.S. wanted to hide."
Neither paper ran the Mohammed cartoons earlier this month.
...
Dear Editor,
The editors of most of America’s (and the world's) major newspapers are cowards (with the Philadelphia Inquirer an amazing exception). These editors thought nothing of running pictures that put our troops in more danger (such as the New York Times putting Abu Grab pictures on its front page for over 4 weeks) or running fake stories that would incite Muslims worldwide (such as the Newsweek bogus story of Korans in the Toilet). Yet when it comes to putting their own sorry X’s (rhymes with “basses”) on the line, they all of a sudden become all so sensitive and understanding. Somehow, the First Amendment is not all that important if some Islamic nut may do something to you. Shame on all of them. Cowards. Thank God we have braver and better men that refuse to lie down and give up their freedoms so easily.
Regards,
2banana
CNN runs a note after stories on the cartoon issue explaining that it is not doing so "because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself."
And running pictures, old pictures from Abu Gharib won't??????????????????
The media is full of sickos.
We don't want any of the photos posted here and we'll remove them.
We'll have little patience with those who disregard this rule.
"All we need to know about Islam"
Here, here!!!!!!!!!!!
Exactly! In fact, these are the same people who were chastizing the WH for daring to show Iraqi detainees at the start of the war...claiming that it was a Geneva Convention violation. They came unhinged again, when the DoD released the photos of Saddam's sons, claiming that was also a violation...and a particular "humiliation" to the Muslim world.
Yet, here they are doing the same thing, showing Muslims in humiliating positions because they no it will inflame emotions in the Arab world and turn opinion against the war and the Bush Administration. Many of the media in the US are too cowardly to show the cartoons because they fear a backlash...and for their personal well-being. Yet, they have no such compunctions when it come publicizing the Ghraib photos that will not only endanger our soliders, but all Americans.
I agree. I looked at one of the sites where the photos are posted, and they are disgusting.
The military has investigated, tried the offenders, and punished those who are guilty, which eliminates the only possible excuse for this MSM behavior. Further dissemination or posting of the Abu Ghraib pictures is just plain sick, the work of cowards and traitors.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.