Infinite MonkeysUC San Diego student Daniel Watts, who noticed my post the other day about the controversy over his airing the Nick Berg decapitation video on college TV, writes:
As I learned during the gubernatorial race, the media has a tendency to take everything I say out of context.Some of the articles have misquoted me as saying that the video "is not a big deal."
It IS a big deal. Anyone dying in Iraq is a big deal. What the media blew out of proportion was the attempted showing of the Nick Berg video on Library Walk on Tuesday (by another student, not me); the video wasn't even shown, but the media hung out for 2 hours to interview the guy.
There are multiple reasons to show the video. The main one is that photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse have been plastered all over the newspapers and Internet, but the media have not gone to similar lengths to try to give the same attention to an even worse crime committed AGAINST Americans. The media's coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse is slanted; they will show graphic photos of prisoners being mauled, humiliated, etc. but they won't show even worse
atrocities committed by the terrorists.I don't know how you felt about the published story, but I just wanted to clear that up. The media tend to selectively print what fits their predetermined story best.
Sincerely,
Daniel Watts
I wish young Watts, whom I know a little and for whom I predict great things, had read my post closely. I think he would have discovered that I agree, in so many words, with everything he said here. As I've written before, I think every American (of reasonable age and maturity) should see the Berg video. What we need most in this war is clarity. Who is the enemy? Why do we fight? Although there will always be a few invincibly ignorant people who will never be reached, these questions are answered, in part, by the ghastly images and audio on the Berg video. This enemy will not be reasoned with. He aims to kill us. We need to kill him first.
Posted by Ben at May 30, 2004 07:39 AM | TrackBack