Question: Have you written to Yahoo regarding their posting of the picture in question? I'm sure their news site gets a ton more worldwide hits than this site. Who has the responsibility for that picture? Is it AP or Reuters? Have you written to them? Or have you written to your local news agency and television stations if they have shown the picture on television?
If you want to assume that Pearl was deliberate in his flipping the bird, then you have to assume that he knew it would go worldwide, and that it would get back to his captors what he was doing.
You frame the question incorrectly. Nobody is questioning the publication on the picture.
(However, if I were running a news organization, I would not publish it.)
The point is not that the picture was shown, but whether the "message" from Pearl was revealed. If the outlets you cite did, then shame on them. You might want to equate FR with Yahoo, AP, Reuters, your local news agency and television stations. I, for one, thought that we are better than they. I am starting to question that. I guess it is one of the perils of growth. The lowest common denominator theory is alive and well.
My fondest wish is that Pearl is released unharmed, and JimRob puts the 2 deleted posts back up, so we can really have at it.
Finally, the obvious is staring everyone in the face, but they fail to see it:
JimRob pulled the articles!
He doesn't pull articles when he disagrees with them, or when there is a popular uprising. He pulls them when they are wrong and reflect badly on FR.
FReegards,