Hypocritical
As we’ve all seen on TV, the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is pretty deplorable. I have a slight problem however. My problem is, WHY is it okay to show these images on TV? I have not seen a newscast in days that didn’t show one of these photos. I’m talking early morning, noon and 5 o’clock news as well.
As you may have seen, I’m not real fond of everyone freaking out over the Janet Jackson incident. Basically to me, it was nothing more than a breast. No big deal. The thing is, every media outlet and pundit in the U.S. condemned Nipplegate as this horrible thing that children should never have seen. Well what about these photos?
Is it okay for my two and a half year old to see the naked prisoner pyramid? It’s been on EVERY, and I do mean EVERY newscast for days. So this morning while the wife and I are enjoying our coffee with the news on, the pictures come on again.
I just don’t get how no one is up in arms about this. This country has a huge fundamental problem with the way it perceives violence and sex. This pictures are fine to show over and over again during times children are awake and around, but the human body is evil. I just don’t get it.
May 12, 2004 @ 4:54 pm
i couldn’t agree more. i do think we need to be confronted with what war can, and almost always does inevitably become though. i’m not saying little kids should be made to watch it. but we do need to be talking about it around the dinner table. at least, i think we do.
this is why you don’t go to war unless you have an actual REASON. you know, one you haven’t lied about. one like where, say, someone has actually attacked us. cuz it is always going to get this ugly, even if there isn’t anyone around with a digital camera or whatever.
i know its tempting and all to go and pretend that a madman is going to attack us. with WMDs and stuff. its a nice school boy fantasy. and then later on pretend that you got bad information, and that you knew nothing about it being manufactured. hey, what’s thousands of lives and 100’s of billions of tax dollars between our govt and the taxpayers and another, um, like country and all?
unless of course it is a third world country you are talking about that has some sort of valuable asset in the ground. like say, oil or something. then it is ok. really, nothing you do after that matters all that much. pyramids away! its important that we are wrong about as much as possible.
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May 13, 2004 @ 10:22 am
I read the most ridiculous article today – a conservative columnist in the Boston Globe (admittedly, a tough job, since conservatives are pretty thoroughly outnumbered there) claims the news agencies and networks should be running pictures and videos of the beheading of Nicholas Berg. This wacko’s logic is that the liberal media (which is increasingly an oxymoron) is deliberately filtering images that might support the conservative agenda. Here’s an url if you feel the need to be violently ill: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/05/13/the_images_we_see____and_those_we_dont/
So I’m wondering: It’s ok to show people being beheaded now, but still not somebody’s breast? After all, we’ve all seen some blurred out images of the prison abuse. Therefore we should get to watch somebody get his head cut off. But the Decency Police are still going to come down so hard on the TV networks that the people who produce NYPD Blue are giving up the ghost because of the new restrictions.
Morons. We are clearly surrounded by morons, and for some reason many of them work for the government. I’m beginning to think that statement is redundant…
Damn it, I want to see some REAL conservatives in the Republican party again. This neo-con, religious fundie movement is ruining our country and increasingly the world.