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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (24353)	8/5/2003 10:55:23 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 89467

"War is an ugly thing", run by the current hideous administration. The journalists also agree they've failed to show Americans what war really looks like. Donvan again: "We never show you how horrible it really is. It really is much, much worse than anything you ever see on television. You can't imagine. from a post at ragingbull, no url. Listen to American journalists critically discussing their coverage of the war in Iraq. Asked if the press was looking for the feel-good story, John Donvan of ABC News' Nightline recounts, "Our car was literally looted in Safran the first day. The very first day, I reported that it was unstable in the place where just yesterday people were cheering. And our editors in New York were saying, 'Well, John, could you get us some of those pictures of people cheering?' " His colleague Jonathan Foreman of the New York Post recounts: "On more than one occasion, I'd be writing stories about how exhausted and pissed off the troops were -- I'd find they were topped by a headline like TROOPS CAN'T WAIT TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE REPUBLICAN GUARD." The journalists also agree they've failed to show Americans what war really looks like. Donvan again: "We never show you how horrible it really is. It really is much, much worse than anything you ever see on television. You can't imagine. And we talk about that. We don't show it to you. The principle isn't that we're trying to be pro-American. It's something that falls more into standards and practices. We don't show naked breasts, and we don't show the guy burnt in a tank. And we talk all the time about that: Should we break that taboo? And if we did, that would have huge impact. Huge." Bill Hemmer, anchor of CNN's American Morning, agrees: What we saw was far too clean and sterile ... War is an ugly thing." Alan Rusbridger, editor of Britain's Guardian newspaper, points out how little film or footage there is of the many American wounded and dead: "Last week, we published the first picture of a dead American. We'd been looking for one since the beginning of the conflict, not because we were particularly desperate to publish one, but the imbalance between dead coalition forces and dead Iraqis was becoming an embarrassment." The point is not that it's fun, or profitable, to show American deaths -- any editor doing so does so reluctantly and a bit queasily, knowing his publication will take a financial hit and his readers / viewers will be angry. The point is that journalists are supposed to be our eyes and ears -- and when they close our eyes to harsh realities, that only perpetuates them.