Friday, April 8, 2011

Conor Friedersdorf Criticizes How the Media Covers War

From the Atlantic:

Our press has always been more squeamish about portraying violence than its counterparts in Europe, where graphic images are common features of front page photographs. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, mainstream newspapers and television programs briefly chose to be more graphic in their coverage, rightly judging that sanitizing the events of that day would do us a disservice. But why is it less important to fully confront the reality of what is happening now in Afghanistan and Iraq? The United States Armed Forces has lost 5,885 people in those two countries. When did you last see a photograph of one of their coffins? Has the story of an innocent Iraqi killed by our forces ever flashed across your TV screen? The figures are mere abstractions.