The POW Tape
The New York Times has something of a roundup of how media handled the POW tape yesterday. There are probably better stories out there – seeing as how there’s no mention that the mug shots of the five POWs were atop mainstream news sites such as Yahoo! news all day yesterday afternoon and evening. Somewhat important, I think, considering the story is about whether the images were shown in the West. Despite that, here are two interesting quotes from the NYT story.

Matt Drudge, who operates a heavily viewed Web site, posted graphic still images from the tape, blurring the faces of the victims. On the site, he justified his defiance of the Pentagon by saying, "If anchormen and others in the media have viewed it, why can't the average citizen?"

Great question, huh? Especially if you are someone who’s not sure you trust the media much anymore. And especially if you think the media is part of the U.S. propaganda machine now.

Most of the sources quoted in the NYT story agonize over whether the images are too gruesome or how they don’t want to violate the Pentagon’s directive that media not show the footage of the POWs. But then the story ends with ABC shockingly saying it’s not even newsworthy:

David Westin, the ABC News president, said he decided ABC News should not show those pictures. "I don't think there's any news value in it," he said.

- posted by Amy @ 3/24/2003 10:37:00 AM