Everyone knows about the video tape that was aired on Al-Jazeera of captured American soldiers.

Story about the Videotape

The question is...should it be shown?

My personal thinking is that they should not sensitize the war to such an extent that people yawn when one comes up.

Of course, depending on how graphic it really it, it should not be shown...

There are pros and cons. I am all for people understanding the causes, effects, and details of this war (and any other). Of course, I am also hesistant to put graphic blood and gore on TV...

What do others think?

I downloaded the video clip yesterday. It's not as graphic as the clip from Mogadishu 1993, when dead Rangers were dragged through the streets, but it's no Disney movie.

I too am torn. Showing the tape would confirm in many peoples minds what kind of people we're dealing with. The dead did appear to have been executed. Their wounds were not consistent with normal battlefield shooting.

But, the trauma of a family seeing their loved ones bodies strewn across a floor, or seeing scared soldiers interrogated on TV is not worth the news value of airing it. I couldn't bear the thought of my wife and daughters seeing me in such a situation on TV.

So, for now I would say do not air.

By airing the video, the broadcasters are doing the Iraqi propaganda ministers job for him.

I'll back DTOM and Moif. There is nothing news-worthy on that tape. It would only be shown for the "shock and awe" of the American public in an attempt to get their ratings up.

Besides, like DTOM said...how would you like to see your son/dad/husband shot in the head on national television?

I hope that even the bottom-dwelling morals of the American media can rise above this one...and not show it

--cheers

What they are doing is against the Geneva Convention

Of Course, i don't expect Saddam to follow it...silly me

Geneva Convention of War

BBC radio 5 live reported that an American network interviewed a family who's son was in the vid. They were of course really distraught but more distraught when the network brought on a marine who had been tortured in the last GWar, who discribed what had happened to him.

Media from both sides is behaving pretty badley, Al Jaz should not have aired the video IMO. However one thing in favour of that vid is that it proves knowledge that Iraq has the captives. The Iraqies could deny all knowledge of the Apache heli pilots or other future captives which could be very bad news for them.

I don't think we can really debate whether Al Jazeera should or shouldn't show the footage, but rather whether our news agencies should or shouldn't.

I don't support American media showing the bodies of those killed. I don't think there is anything to be gained by that outside of propoganda and ill thought emotional responses. I do, however, support showing the video interviews or just any footage of the captured soldiers, so long as it follows a similar format. Such interviews allow us to monitor the condition of our soldiers (beyond the Red Cross workers).

I think I'm a bit confused on how the footage -- at least of those being interviewed -- is a violation of the Geneva conventions. From what I've seen they aren't being intimidated or mistreated. The only argument I've heard from speakers on the news is that it's violating the "public curiosity" bit by even broadcasting footage of anything. That argument doesn't seem to hold up when you consider all the Iraqi prisoners we've shown footage of in captivity with American forces.

I want to see the POWs returned home, but as long as they continue to be treated properly I'm not sure what the calls for violating the Geneva Convention are about. Maybe somebody can clear it up for me.

Like many, I am torn on this issue. So I sit here on my fence and figure out which side onto which I should fall.

One thing that is eating at me and maybe someone can address this - I have heard a number of American TV and radio hosts today and yesterday, saying that they viewed the tape but they won't show it to the American public.

So my question is (and amlord if you think I should take this to my own thread, let me know) - who appointed the American media as the elite, "allowed" to view this, when the rest of us non media peons are not? Remember, it's not that I necessarily want to, but why do they get to?

I recognize part of the reason is merely because the American media has easier access to view it in their studios rather than those Americans who had to scour the internet to find it. But many hosts I listened to today, who had viewed it, were quite adamant that the American public not be allowed to view it.

What really bothered me was that some of them were not using the Geneva Convention excuse. Instead, some had the nerve to act as if they were a moral judge of what would or would not be good for the American people. I actually heard a radio host on WLS today say, "I really don't think the American people need to see this." Why, thank you, unelected representative, to decide what I should and shouldn't see.

Let's not forget, this is the same American media that broadcast the atrocity in Mogadishu and the massacre at Columbine. Who are they kidding? I find it more than insulting that some in the media have chosen to be my mother. I don't need them making such decisions for me.

If it is illegal to show, fine. Say that and be done with it. But if the media seriously thinks they are in a position to act as a moral judge of the American people, they are seriously mistaken.

I haven't seen the video and won't go out of my way to see it, but I think it should be widely available.

Americans, in general, have become so desensitized to war, that they think it's a video game. They are brave and righteous as long as it's somebody else's kid over there getting slaughtered.

Maybe after viewing it people will stop to think about why we go to war. I'm not anti-war. I think we should not cower to anybody and should defend ourself with overwhelming force. Our lives and liberty depend on our ability to use force when the need arises.

But right now, the world views us as the schoolyard bully that just kicked the snot out of the skinny tweeb because he's afraid the dweeb might become a threat one day. The video would put this whole sham of a war in it's proper perspective.