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| REPORTING FOR THE ENEMY (from the Wash. Post - really!) |
| 2004-06-16 |
| Via All Things Political (hat tip: Robert Prather) The video only lasts four minutes or so — gruesome scenes of torture from the days when Saddam Hussein’s thugs ruled Abu Ghraib prison. I couldn’t bear to watch, so I walked out until it was over. Some who stayed wished they hadn’t. They told of savage scenes of decapitation, fingers chopped off one by one, tongues hacked out with a razor blade — all while victims shriek in pain and the thugs chant Saddam’s praises. Saddam’s henchmen took the videos as newsreels to document their deeds in honor of their leader. But these awful images didn’t show up on American TV news. In fact, just four or five reporters showed up for the screening at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, which says it got the video via the Pentagon. Fewer wrote about it. No surprise, since no newscast would air the videos of Nick Berg and Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl getting decapitated, or of U.S. contractors in Fallujah getting torn limb from limb by al Qaeda operatives. But every TV network has endlessly shown photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib. Why? Three guesses & the first two don’t count. "Because most [journalists] want Bush to lose," says AEI scholar Michael Ledeen, who helped host the screening of the Saddam video. No shit, Sherlock. Got it in one. Former Pentagon official Richard Perle raps "faint hearts in the administration," saying they’ve bought into the idea that it’s "politically incorrect" to show the horrors of Saddam’s regime. But he also faults the media — after all, AEI’s briefings on Iraq have been standing-room-only, but the room was half empty for the screening of the Saddam torture video. But part of the issue is simply that Saddam’s tortures, like al Qaedas tactics, are so awful that they’re unbearable to watch. If I couldn’t watch them myself, I’m hardly arguing that others should have to. Yet it raises a very complex problem in the War on Terror. It’s worse than creating moral equivalence between Saddam’s tortures and prisoner abuse by U.S. troops. It’s that we do far more to highlight our own wrongdoings precisely because they are less appalling. And because you hope you can bring down the Republican Administration that the empty-headed Americans stupidly elected. In this era, a photo is everything. We highlight U.S. prisoner abuse because the photos aren’t too offensive to show. We downplay Saddam’s abuse precisely because it’s far worse — so we can’t use the photos. And that sets the stage for remarks like Sen. Ted Kennedy’s claim that Saddam’s torture chambers have reopened under "U.S. management." That and your silence; where was the outcry from the "press" when he spewed out that monstrous load of oral diarrhea? Media analysts like Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler admit it sounds "sanctimonious" to justify publishing prison abuse photos — but not al Qaeda beheading videos — in the name of showing "the reality of war." But that is just what he did. The WaPo sounding sanctimonious? I’m shocked! AEI spokeswoman Veronique Rodman, puzzled by the minimal interest in the Saddam torture video, is sure that if it was a video of equally horrific torture committed by U.S. troops, the press would find ways to show or report it. You bet your sweet ass they would - over and over and over.... Reporters have to face up to the fact that right now, if we highlight the wrongs that Americans commit but not — out of squeamishness — the far worse horrors committed by others, we become propaganda tools for the other side. You mean LIKE YOU ALREADY ARE? Wonder what precipitated such a "come to Jesus" moment for that liberal rag? Wonder if they’ll follow through? |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #3 Thanks, Frank. I can start adding them up again - just wiped out my previous 1000 with this one "awshit." ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-06-16 10:13:18 PM |
| #2 you get an attagirl for effort tho :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-06-16 10:07:52 PM |
| #1 Oops! My bad. This is from the New York Post, not the WaPo. [Didn't click on the link - the WaPo asks nosy questions & pisses me off.] Coming from the NY Post, this makes a LOT more sense. (Too bad - the snarky comments were good, even if I do say so myself.) Oh, well - I'll try to do better next time. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-06-16 9:13:26 PM |