Something that's in danger of being lost in all the uproar about the distasteful, disgraceful and inhumane behavior of American jailers in Iraq is that all those prisoners, no matter their guilt or innocence, have family members.
I keep thinking of the hostage crisis in the 70s - thanks to Nightline (and other news sources) we saw their faces - they were faces of people held against their will, suffering. We've had soldiers in the news recently - taken prisoner and shown on tv. I read an interview with the mother of one of those soldiers. Now I wonder what the families of these Iraqi prisoners must be feeling. The prisoners' faces are covered but I'm sure every family with someone in the prison is wondering if it's their relative in those photos.
Yes indeed. Very well said, Batty.
It was so weird having Nightline be controversial for showing photos of thosed killed in the war this past Friday. I think most people have forgotten that the only reason Nightline exists was that it was created as an evening Iranian Hostage Update show - and then the network decided to keep the show after the hostage crisis was over. So frankly it seems right that they ran the images of The Fallen.
Have you seen the photos of the Iraqi prisoners? They're horrible - but I think everyone should see them. It's a shock, but you have to see them to understand how horrible this is.
Posted by: batty at May 3, 2004 06:06 PMNightline wasn't even called Nightline in the beginning; it was "America Held Hostage."
The stupidest complaint I heard about the showing of the American dead was that it was the beginning of sweeps; of all the least compelling television ideas I can think of, the simple showing of photographs with one man reading the names would have to be high on the list.
Sure I've seen those prisoner photos; I'm appalled, and I'm angry. I'm angry at the entire military chain of command, which should have supervised better. I'm mad at the kids who did it; they should have known better. But mostly I'm mad at George Bush and his Cabinet, all of whom have used the word "evil" so many times a climate where this could happen has been created.
Posted by: Linkmeister at May 3, 2004 08:50 PMWar is ugly..
War is horrible..
For both sides..
And I don't know how anyone comes out of this whole experience being "okay"....
One of the reviews I read noted that it was "ok" to show the images of the dead and burned bodies in Falluj - I can't remember the spelling - but somehow not ok for Nightline to run its tribute. Which really makes no sense. Apparently some people don't realize that humans are perfectly capable of grieving without having to have political feelings involved.
Actually I heard that criticism too - about it being the beginning of sweeps - and I have to admit that it did give me pause. Not that I think the producers of Nightline would go for that - but that's exactly how the people at networks think. Everything on the networks are geared to taking advantage of sweeps. So while I don't think Nightline had anything to do with a sweeps stunt - I could easily believe that the network wanted to make sure this was scheduled sometime during sweeps. The trick is to now watch and see what the other news organizations do. I'll bet there will be some who will have a similar special or two. After all, FOX said they're doing something "better" next weekend.
*rolls eyes*
Meanwhile you can tell it's sweeps because there are 20,000 It's The End of Friends specials on.
*more eye rolling*
My eyes are getting crossed from the "Friends" finale. Get it over with already.
I for one can't understand how such a group of stupid people (especially Joey!!) could even make it in NYC!!
But then again, maybe that's why they did...hmmmm....