The Selectivity And Motives Of The Media Questioned
[guest post by Dana]
After the Paris massacre last month, many media outlets declined to publish or air the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoon. Fox News was one such outlet. There was no explanation given other than a spokesperson stating there were “no plans” to air them.
Yesterday, however, Fox News chose to air pictures of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh as he burned to death. An explanation was given for their decision to air the very disturbing images:
“Tonight we are going to show you some of the images ISIS has put out from a long slickly-produced video,” Bret Baier began Special Report. “The images are brutal, they are graphic, they are upsetting. You may want to turn away. You may want to have the children leave the room right now.”
He continued: “The reason we are showing you this is to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism and to label it as such. We feel you need to see it so we will put up one of the images on your screen right now.”
Then:
That image was of al-Kasaesbeh standing in his cage with flames rising at his feet, clearly about to engulf him in real-time. After the photograph aired for several seconds, Baier told his audience, “The picture is down. You can look back here if you turned away.”
Also, after the terrorist attacks in France, the New York Daily News ran a 2011 photo of Charlie Hebdo publisher Stéphane Charbonnier holding a copy of the magazine with the cover art depicting Mohammed – yet they had made a point to blur out the likeness.
However, yesterday that same media outlet saw fit to publish some of the grisly images from the released ISIS video.
Immediately after the attacks in France, media outlets were self-censoring as they rationalized their decisions not to print or air the Mohammed cartoon. Reasons such as not showing headlines or cartoons that could be viewed as insensitive or offensive and policies against using provocative images and so forth were given. Yet now we see many outlets choosing to print and air that which is offensive and provoking. In light of this, the question being asked, “What’s more “offensive,” a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammed or photos of terrorists burning a man alive?” is a valid one. And yet, too, the decision to release the photos begs further question: Do media outlets that release the images play into the hands of ISIS by giving them publicity and notoriety, and does this then emboldened our enemy (as far as the West is concerned)? Do the images instill fear of the “organization” into the collective public heart and mind, which is also what ISIS wants? Or do the images being viewed by millions, instead brutally and effectively and without question define and identify precisely who and what our enemy is? And if the latter is true, is this administration listening?
–Dana
Good morning.
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 6:45 amMaybe the difference is the perceived chances of negative reaction from the Islamic shitbirds.
To air the images of “Da Prophet” would lead to a chance of the terrorists striking the agency in retaliation. Airing the images of the murder of the Jordanian pilot furthers the interests of the murderers in carrying the message to the world…. not much need to object on their part as it saves them a lot of additional effort in doing it themselves.
I do think it is good for the American public to know –really know — what we are up against so they can make informed choices.
gramps, the original (9e1415) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:11 amLast night, the CBS Evening News didn’t show the pilot being burned to death. They did show him in a cage. In an interview with somebody, Scott Pelley mentioned that the people at CBS had seen it, and the production values were much better than previous ISIS videos.
That raises a question? Where did they get the skills for that? You’re average ordinary 20 to 30 year old European johadist wouldn’t have these skills.
Ans where did they get their money? They were paying fighters twice as mch as the Free Syrian Army. Is it all randoms, and stolen from banks in MOsul, Iraq, and oil sales?
And where did they get their weapons? All stolen? No, they got some from some states.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:24 amShowing images of a man burning alive is clearly more offensive and provoking than a cartoon. The images also show how brutal ISIS is.
Great write up, certainly an interesting series of decisions. Its stuff like this that make people believe in the Illuminati!
DejectedHead (75dfa4) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:26 amShowing pictures of a man being burnt alive by Muslims makes me want to do the same thing to them.
Jack (a742cc) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:35 amGood questions to think about Dana. I’ll be interested to read how others feel about this. But I don’t think I see the showing of a Charlie Hebdo cartoon cover and the showing of the grisly immolation as remotely in a comparable category of “offensive” or alleged offensive, or even in the same media decision tree. I see the decision by media to show, or not show, or how to show the immolation pictures of the pilot as much more along the lines of American news organizations uniformly deciding not to air pictures or videos of the World Trade Center jumpers who chose not to burn alive. The media always said that withholding jumper video was out of respect to the families and also because they were worried their viewers “couldn’t handle it”. I always believed that was dishonest and a cowardly mistake because the jumpers were generally personally unidentifiable yet were a huge and important part of the story that awful day. So I am glad that there is ample visual proof of the incredible inhumanity of the terrorist group who relishes burning a man alive and brags about it, and that people the world over are seeing it. That is a more powerful image and statement than whatever point the cartoon was making could ever be.
elissa (5d0244) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:52 amit’s like everybody in this party’s shining like illuminati
i don’t watch grisly stuff
i remember a jewel song where she sings, plaintively, in that plaintive jewel way
she warbles
please be careful with me
I’m sensitive
and i want to stay that way
and I feel the same way
plus fox news is just for hotel rooms when you can’t afford a hooker
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:56 amElissa,
I agree re the jumpers at the WTC and I’m not convinced it was viewers the media was protecting by not showing the images.
Dana (9c3f51) — 2/4/2015 @ 9:20 amThe answer to your last question, Dana, is “not impossible but highly improbable”
Colonel Haiku (cfa0dc) — 2/4/2015 @ 9:27 amI think this is the Shepard Smith (baahh .. bahhh) branch of Fox. This faction wants us to be as terrified as they are. Mark Steyn is recovering from the flu, or perhaps just taking a few well-deserved days off, and they ran this video of a Heritage speech from the last years of the Bush Presidency for today’s column. It’s well worth the time, being both entertaining and prophetical, and very much on point.
The immolation of the Jordanian pilot certainly puts the Abu Ghraib “torture” photos in perspective. The legal arm of the Democrat Party is probably more concerned that ISIS hasn’t honored the “convention” of not showing photos of prisoners of war, than they are appalled at this barbarity. After all, burning prisoners to death is not part of our western protocols, while photographing prisoners is. It truly shows the wisdom of the past practice of treating captured pirates and terrorists with summary executions after extracting what ever information they might be willing to divulge. The world needs to be purged of these muslim terrorists, and soon. The last thing we need to do is treat these thugs as though they are “honorable” combatants.
And to do that, we need a President who will discharge every single JAG officer and any line officers who seem to regret their absence, and then sack any remaining Flag officers, and finally appoint some O4/O5s with proven battlefield credentials to fill the empty slots. The media who have facilitated this feminization of our military and neutering of our intelligence services should be banned from all future conflicts, and their parking spots and driving privileges in the District of Columbia should be revoked. If they want to cover an event, let them take the bus, or walk. Also fire 80% of the Pentagon civilians. With that done, we need to begin to build a military that can both protect our borders and punish our enemies.
The muslim world sees this as an existential war. We are commanded by a feckless narcissist who takes for granted his inheritance, and who squanders a substantial fraction of that inheritance every time he make a decision. Despite a work schedule that allows him to practice golf with an intensity that would be the envy of most collegiate golf programs, he is still a failure at that as well. We are in a war for our existence, but we don’t recognize the truth. The media is the hand maiden of our enemy.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 10:34 amBobathome,
While you mock Fox for this, yet at the same time say “We are in a war for our existence, but we don’t recognize the truth. The media is the hand maiden of our enemy”, wouldn’t the photos of their reprobate actions help convey that we are at war and push us toward grasping the full truth? If not, how do you convince that part of the beltway that can’t bring themselves to look it straight in the eye? What would it take?
Dana (9c3f51) — 2/4/2015 @ 11:08 amI have a similar but different question for you, bobathome, so I can better understand your comment. Were you referring to the fact that Fox felt a need to warn viewers in advance what they’d show next in case parents didn’t want their kids to see it, or did you mean something else? AFAIC Baier at Fox at least showed the pilot being burned on their newscast and I applaud that decision. While pictures of the immolation appeared on NBC’s website I know for a fact that Brian Williams elected not to show it on the nightly news. I don’t know about the others (CBS and ABC.)
elissa (089d2b) — 2/4/2015 @ 11:37 amMy feeling is that there are a whole lot of people who are terrified by these muslim thugs and war in general, and I suspect that they think that by showing us these things they will convince more people to share their fears. I think they believe that they are justifying appeasement. After all, the print and video arms of the media are only too happy to report any number of outrageous acts defiling Christian religious beliefs. But they are so discrete about similar issues when it comes to muslims or North Korean dictators. The significant difference is that it’s been about three centuries since Christians killed each other over religious dogma, but death is a very real consequence of disrespecting the muslims or petty tyrants. This is pure cowardice however you choose to portray it.
It springs from the idea that there are “rules of war”. We are fighting an enemy that knows of no rules, and they have a “religion” that encourages them in this belief. Even in wars where there was an apparent adherence to the “rules of war”, WWII comes to mind … there was no use of poison gas … and when Germany and the USSR exterminated prisoners and civilians they attempted to cover it up … the reality was that the rules were observed only because each side was ready to retaliate in kind if any of the “rules” were broken. A US ship blew up in Bari, Italy, during our invasion of Italy in WWII. It was loaded with mustard gas. The gas was there as a deterrent, but during an air raid by the Germans, a bomb struck it and when it blew up and burned, it released clouds of mustard gas. The gas caused massive Allied casualties. The event was covered up by the Allies who didn’t want the public to know how deterrence was enforced.
So the concept of “rules of war” is a chimera. We are fools to impose our ideas of “rules of war” on our troops when we engage terrorists. We suffer more casualties than we should, and we encourage our enemies. The one thing it does accomplish is to make the concept of waging war more palatable to those who don’t wish to wage it in the first place.
After WWII we discovered any number of atrocities committed by the Japanese. A Major on Iwo Jima ate the liver of a bound POW and watched while he died. Bayonet practice on live POWs and civilians were also reported. For these and other reasons the survival rate of our POWs captured at Rabaul was about 5%. After the war, these things were hushed up, and they only came to public notice in the 1990’s as the documents were declassified. The end result is that the American public has a very unrealistic view of what may well be the norm for most of the rest of the world.
My feeling is that our media thinks they are creating a new kind of human by subjecting the public to candy-coated versions of what is actually going on. My fear is that they are just making it possible for a bunch of illiterate savages to occupy a substantial part of the world using 7th century political ideas, methods of execution from the 17th (Joan of Arc) and 18th (guillotine) centuries, and 21st century armaments. These things will always be shocking, but too many Americans think that they are anomalies. I have the view that they are what happens to a culture that is unwilling to defend individual freedoms.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 1:07 pmJoan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431, or 15th century, not the 17th century.
And as to the videos, I think it diminishes any man to show his last moments on earth. Some die “well”, others just die. But that should not be the measure of the man.
The father of a boyhood friend was kill by an Iraqi mob in the 1950’s. His commercial airliner suffered a mechanical problem returning from Indonesia and put down in Baghdad for repairs. He was dragged out of his hotel, drawn and quartered and the remains paraded through the streets. That was not the measure the man.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 1:18 pmThey don’t show the cartoons because they are afraid they will be attacked (and will point at the Charlie Hebdo killings for justification of those fears.)
They show the burning because they are afraid that they will be attacked if they do not. This is what the master wants, after all.
Perhaps it is time to eliminate water boarding, and proceed to gasoline boarding.
htom (4ca1fa) — 2/4/2015 @ 1:51 pmThese killings are a measure of the killers, not of their measure of the victim.
Sorry for your loss, Bobathome.
htom (4ca1fa) — 2/4/2015 @ 1:54 pmbobathome, I respectfully disagree in part.
I can’t help but be awed by how steadily Lt. al-Kasaesbeh walked up to that cage. He knew what was going to happen; they had already doused his clothes with flammable liquid. Yet he managed to keep his composure even as he watched the flames approach his cage.
I doubt I could have done it.
ISIS tries to diminish their murder victims with their snuff films. They never succeed. They only ever succeed in diminishing themselves. This latest murder was their greatest defeat so far.
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 2:15 pmGallup CEO claims BLS unemploment rate is flaming horsesh*t.
Even reporting government economic figgers by the MFM is openly immoral.
You knuckledraggers can’t handle the truth. STFU and spend your handouts, racists.
DNF (88591f) — 2/4/2015 @ 2:25 pmMy 2 cents, maybe bob meant to say that it is unfair to measure a man by watching him die,
that said, sometimes the way a man dies does indeed speak loudly.
So, even if the Jordanian pilot should not have to be judged by how he died, he did so bravely.
Years ago some of the barbarians were going to behead a captured Italian soldier, filming it for propaganda. It was told that he said, “This is how an Italian dies” and proceeded to fight and give them a tough time, spoiling their video.
Totally unfair to be asked to rise to such an occasion, but having been asked, sometimes people do.
I heard today that the King of Jordan quoted some lines from Clint Eastwood in “Unforgiven” in a meeting with US officials yesterday, something about the ferocity of his vengeance.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/4/2015 @ 2:40 pm@ bobathome,
IOW, images shown + Americans viewing them = fear and accepted appeasement. This would make sense of the administration, wherein our president’s response was one of exhorting Jordan to remain calm and composed. But given that it was Fox News, it wouldn’t seem to be the same motive. Instilling fear is a way to control people. Instilling a righteous anger is a way to spurn people to action – iow, perhaps the possibility of boots on the ground. At the least, demanding of our government a cohesive response and strategy in defeating this enemy.
Further, I dont’ believe the images were sugar-coated in any way, and perhaps they might somehow help wake up America to what is at hand. And it’s not just these individual acts of barbarism, nor the slaughters taking place at the hands of ISIS, it’s the big-picture-long-term: get rid of the infidels, establish the caliphate state throughout the region and then some. The threat is so much greater than the individual acts of barbarism.
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 2:48 pmSteve, I too would wish to be so self-controlled, and as you say, Lt. al-Kasaesbeh is to be praised. He didn’t give his murderers any further satisfacton, and that was all he could do. But I’d rather see a video of him flying his fighter if I’m going to remember him. Knowledge of, or effect in changing, the state of mind of his murderers is only of interest to me insofar as that might assist in their extermination.
This article in The Globe and Mail (Canada) connects the murder of the Japanese reporters with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge of $200-million in humanitarian aid for countries battling the Islamic State. So the $200M ransom wasn’t a random number picked out the air. And Japan is in quite a bind if it wants to play any role in the world unless it decides to ignore its Constitution.
The American fixation on sports is not a good preparation for what is to come. And a government that treats this stuff as work place violence is a disgrace. Especially since this “determination” in the Fort Hood massacre denied surviving victims medical care and other forms of assistance that would be provided to survivors of an armed attack by a beligerant. It was only the intervention of a Republican Congressman last year that corrected this injustice, and this years after the event.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:01 pmIslamic terrorists didn’t want Charlie Hebdow’s images of Muhammad published so the media cowards, for the most part, complied. Now, the same terrorists want images of beheadings and the barbaric immolation of the Jordanian pilot to receive wide publicity, and again the ever helpful roundheels media presstitutes swoon in compliance. Next, they’ll be telling us Jeb Bush is a conservative.
ropelight (0bb6ed) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:06 pmToday’s WaPo considers the decision made by Fox News to post the full 22-minute ISIS video on its website. As such, some security experts took Fox News to task:
Today, Fox News stood by its decision:
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:09 pmDoc @17, I concur. Which is why I only respectfully disagreed with bobathome in part. These ISIS maggots don’t dare make these snuff films without face masks. I don’t ever imagine when I see them or the stills that what I’m watching shows me the measure of their victim. I know I’m seeing the measure of the killers though and I’m not impressed. I can’t help but admire the way LT. al-Kasaesbeh maintained his dignity, though. They tried to make a circus out of his death and he didn’t let them.
And the Italian you’re thinking of was Fabrizzio Quatrocchi.
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:12 pmDana, I agree that the video makes a lot of people angry and we might hope this would translate into an effective response. But I think a lot of people who consider themselves progressives have a contrary view. Just as they confuse cause and effect in all other aspects of life, they see this as proof that we need to give these thugs daycare centers, healthcare benefits, unemployment insurance, and all the amenities we have come to take for granted. I think these progressives make all their decisions by trying to figure out what would make them behave in such a way, and they come to some very strange conclusions. One of my State’s US Senators said exactly this when trying to comprehend Osama bin Laden. They wouldn’t call this fear, rather it is a perverse sort of compassion that will cause them to consider appeasing these thugs. But down deep, beneath their rationalization, it is raw fear them motivates them. I think ISIS knows these fools for what they are, just as Hitler read Baldwin and his French counterparts in the mid-30s.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:15 pmI am reminded of Thomas Friedman’s psychotic break:
Sure. Because yesterday when ISIS set a man on fire, they were deep down, ashamed of their actions. And all they need is a little respect to turn them from their waywardness. This is the sort of denial that will get us all killed.
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:22 pmone of the very mostest important and critical indices of human development is not setting other people on fire I think
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:24 pmMalcolm Nance? He destroyed his credibility years ago. He’s the former SERE instructor who tried to convince the world that when the USN waterboards people in training they pour water down your throat until the you can feel the sphincter relax and pint after pint of water enters your lungs.
It just doesn’t work that way.
MD in Philly, do you have any estimate of what the death rate per 100 individuals would be if everyone sent to SERE received that kind of treatment? Because they don’t pull you out of training after they waterboard you. You go right back to the POW camp.
I didn’t ingest any water. As I understand it even a teaspoon of water would have sent me to the hospital for treatment to prevent complications like pulmonary edema.
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:24 pmYeah, here it is, from back in 2007.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/waterboarding-torture-article-1.227670
This guy is a liar.
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:37 pmThe ECB, led by another Goldman-Sachs plant, couldn’t stand the suspense of waiting and today blew off a couple of their own toes:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-04/ecb-pulls-trigger-blocks-funding-greece
The MFM will play this as ballsy.
DNF (88591f) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:38 pmWow, people commenting here are all over the map on this. I didn’t expect that (not that I really knew *what* to expect from the thread title). I’ve not talked to a single person since yesterday who if they saw or heard about the immolation hasn’t been viscerally, manifestly horrified and want some sort of revenge or retaliation toward the forces and perpetrators of this evil. This burning barbarity has had a much stronger impact than the beheadings on the American public, I think, even though the pilot was not even an American. I’ve not had anyone say to me that we should tiptoe around these barbarians and that we’d better be nicer to them or show more inclusion or compassion to them. Quite the opposite. Frankly I cannot even imagine a different reaction –well except maybe from the president and the Secretary of State.
I think when they see it or parts of it, that video is a wake up call of sorts, a push into reality for a lot of folks who have allowed themselves for too long to look away and to pretend there is not a war for civilization going on.
elissa (089d2b) — 2/4/2015 @ 3:57 pmThe so-called President is being propped up as indecisive in the ME while refusing to lend any support at all to France or Jordan in their fight. All we see are images of Jarjar loping from Marine One waving lamely.
Smegmabreath is openly collaborating with the MB to overthrow al Sisi, is colluding with Iran to surround the Arab States providing a foil to Sunni dominance, is undercutting Israel’s existential impulse and is giving Russia every reason to desire war with the former EU.
The sheeple are about to receive an azzfull.
DNF (88591f) — 2/4/2015 @ 4:02 pmI don’t know which had a stronger impact on me. James Foley’s beheading, or Obama’s abbreviated press conference so he could ditch the jacket and get to the golf course as fast as possible.
What a combination. We have contemptible enemies in the field who need killing, and we have a despicable preezy playing politics with national security. Actually, we have the whole democratic party playing politics with national security.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/02/senate-democrats-vote-to-shut-down-department-of-homeland-security.php
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 4:12 pmSteve57 you and other military men might want to toddle over to Drudge to see Brian Williams’ public recant (with a little help from Stars and Stripes) of a lie he’s been telling since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. OOOOOPsie.
elissa (089d2b) — 2/4/2015 @ 4:23 pmI know y’all keep hearing how the economy, here, there, anywhere is improving.
Well, the truth is in diametric opposition to this characterization.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2554931c-ac85-11e4-9d32-00144feab7de.html#axzz3QpKwyFuk
There are scores of economic eventualities that must obtain that will blow the whole shebang wide open.
DNF (88591f) — 2/4/2015 @ 4:54 pmIf the lungs actually filled with water some people might immediately die of cardiac events even if resuscitated.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:50 pmAnd some who survived would probably develop secondary ARDS and perhaps die from that.
he should be asked to demonstrate what he said he did.
Yes, it’s real brave of King Abdullah to go after ISIS tooth and nail, but did he come out and say that this is a problem because of Islam and the radical teachings of the Koran? No, he did not.
nk (dbc370) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:58 pm#32: elissa, Oh silly Mr. Williams. When recalling an event in Iraq he “conflated” the facts and imagined himself on a helicopter that received enemy fire, when, in fact, he arrived at the site where the helicopter managed to land an hour after the event. Conflate … what a marvelous concept. But Williams got to play the war hero for a couple of hours at a hockey game. This reminds me of Slick Willy’s squeeze who pretended that she’d received sniper fire in the Serbia war. But now we know that she just “conflated” the event. Oh … and they just figured out that that Serbia wasn’t a genocidal war, which is a remarkably accurate assessment, just two decades late. Ah, the wonders of “rules of war.” Makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
And these (Williams, et al) are the guys who sway “public” opinion.
bobathome (f208b6) — 2/4/2015 @ 6:24 pmThese “people” are despicable:
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 7:20 pmMD @34, I don’t think anyone has ever been killed by waterboarding during training ever. So I take it if it actually was done the way Nance describes it (“the lungs are actually filling with water;” “the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs”) the death rate would be somewhat higher than zero?
Which would be an extravagant waste of aviators, aircrew, SEALs, Recon Marines, etc., since they don’t attend SERE until after they’ve completed every other stage of their very expensive training.
I would invite Malcolm Nance to volunteer to be waterboarded the way he describes. Whoever waterboarded me was doing it wrong apparently.
Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 8:04 pmRussia is going down, oh yeah.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-04/goldman-busts-narrative-new-oil-order-blessing-disguise-russia
Well, ok, at least we killed domestic drilling. Take a bow, Princess.
DNF (488880) — 2/5/2015 @ 5:36 amThe argument that Val Jar is ultimately rational.
http://m.nationalreview.com/article/397720/obama-does-have-strategy-victor-davis-hanson
DNF (488880) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:00 amIn the alternative news this week Iran is 26% lifetime nonreproductive versus, e.g., Scandinavia at 6%.
IOW they need nuclear weapons to hedge a demographic bomb.
DNF (488880) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:06 am