Journal of the mental environment
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever"
Young men dead
Should the media publish images of dead U.S. servicemen?
- Tue, 15 Jul 2008 3:52 pm — Posted by Abdul
- | 7 comments
Over the weekend, I was reading Susan D. Moeller’s essay on “Media and Democracy”and she pointed out that one of the paramount problems with the mainstream media is that they have failed to show the human costs of war.
From September 1, 2004 to February 28, 2005, 559 American soldiers and Western allies died but not a single picture got published in the seven elite U.S. newspapers. Among these elite: New York Times, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek. During this time period, there were two significant news events: the U.S. led assault on Fallujah and the January 2005 elections in Iraq.
Times have changed. Life magazine published grim pictures of the Spanish Civil War in 1938 with these words:
Once again Life prints grim pictures of War, well knowing that once again they will dismay and outrage thousands and thousands of readers. But today’s two great continuing news events are two wars — one in China, one in Spain… Obviously Life cannot ignore not suppress these two great news events in pictures. As events, they have an authority far more potent than any editors’ policy or readers’ squeamishness. But Life could conceivably choose to show pictures of these events that make them look attractive. They are not, however, attractive events… Americans’ noble and sensible dislike of war is largely based on ignorance of what modern war really is… The love of peace has no meaning or no stamina unless it is based on a knowledge of war’s terrors… Dead men have indeed died in vain if live men refuse to look at them.. [Emphasis mine]
Photo: Alex Majoli (Courtesy of Magnum Photos)
Today its even easier to ignore war’s terrors as the U.S. officials actively try to make it hard for journalists to get the reality out of the afflicted areas. Embedded Photojournalist, Zoriah was barred for publishing photos of Marines killed in a suicide bombing last month. In his blog post, he wrote:
What I saw was abhorrently graphic, yet far too important for the world to ignore. I present images that provide an uncensored view of a terrible event, and some small measure of dignity to those who lost their lives.
You can see all images here and decide for yourself… if these images should be published? Do they, as Zoriah says, give some dignity to those who lost their lives? or are the politicians using this absence of reality to portray the illusion of victory in places like Iraq?
RELATED: New York Times has published “4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Public Images” accompanied by a “Picturing Casualties” slide show.
Adbusters at Minneapolis Media Conference
Senior Editor, Sean Condon, is blogging this weekend from the National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis.
- Sat, 07 Jun 2008 9:54 am — Posted by Sean
- | 1 comment
Drawing comparisons between media democracy and his own family’s struggle with addiction, PBS journalist Bill Moyers pointedly told attendees at the National Conference for Media Reform that, “what you don’t know can kill you.”
Unaware of his own son’s drug addiction, Moyers had to face the harsh and horrible reality that addiction can bring to a family and worked with his son to help overcome his illness. Likewise, Moyers said the corporate media’s addiction to repeating the spin of the government is a devastating illness that impacts an entire nation.
While there have been a lot of focus at the NCMR about how to reclaim the media, Moyers gave a passionate speech on Saturday morning reiterating why it is so important for independent journalists to break this cycle of addiction.
Bill Moyers
There is still no greater example of how the corporate media’s out-of-control addiction cost lives than during its coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq War. Once the media got in bed with the Bush administration, they couldn’t get out and ask the tough questions about what was really going on. Since the war started, up to a million Iraqis have died and the foundation for the Iraq invasion has been proven to be a lie.
Moyers’ documentary about the media’s role in Iraq gives a disturbing look at just how complicit the media was during that time.
At the end of his speech Moyers pushed the responsibility to break this cycle of abuse onto the independent media – no small task, he admitted, but a necessary one if we are going to save lives.
You can follow the updates from the conference at twitter.com/adbuster
