Most of the people on this planet are routinely bombarded with horrific images. It is, therefore, bizarre to hear the "it is too gory" justification for not releasing OBL's photo.
Talk about the nanny state!
Jack Shafer writes:
I'm for the publication of the pictures because they're an essential part of the war on al-Qaida. Withholding the photos and couching their suppression in the name of national security misjudges what makes al-Qaida tick and infantilizes the nation. It also sets a precedent for "news that's too gruesome to reveal." ...The other argument is that releasing the photo would incite anti-American jihad. Oh yeah, wave the "war on terror" banner all over again.
If a nation can be trusted to view the horrors of 9/11 in real time, flip through the Abu Ghraib picture book, witness the made-for-video murder of Daniel Pearl, see images of dead Uday and Qusay on the evening news, and gaze upon pictures of dead soldiers coming home as air freight (photos that President Bush, incidentally, tried to ban in the name of managing the news), then it can be trusted to stomach the last photos of Osama Bin Laden—and whatever turmoil those photos might cause. Why? Because that's what sort of country the United States is.
As always, it is only humor that can get me over the hump
Warning: do not eat or drink when watching the following:)
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Terrorists: They're Just Like Us! | ||||
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