As the White House moves toward releasing photos and video of Osama bin Laden's dead body, the Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins surveyed journalists on deciding whether to print or broadcast any images.
Kelly McBride, Poynter's senior faculty for ethics, reporting and writing, said newsrooms should consider many alternatives beyond simply whether to run graphic images and videos. “I would be thinking about the range of alternatives that I have, starting with: run it really big and [in] color on the front page or in a TV headline or run it small, run it inside, run it in black and white, run it only on the Internet."
White House officials said this morning that they were still deciding what to do, though they added that they were leaning toward releasing the photo, according to The New York Times. A senior administration official said the administration could release it as soon as today. But administration officials cautioned that they were still weighing the costs and benefits of such a move, the NYT says.
What is your newsroom's policy? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
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White House officials said this morning that they were still deciding what to do, though they added that they were leaning toward releasing the photo, according to The New York Times. A senior administration official said the administration could release it as soon as today. But administration officials cautioned that they were still weighing the costs and benefits of such a move, the NYT says.
What is your newsroom's policy? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
If it is an official U.S. government picture, they have to run it. Not to run it means you don't support your own government.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is my paper NEVER runs graphic images. Just cleavage on Metromix.
ReplyDelete6:36 I do not agree.
ReplyDeleteIn Idaho in the early 1990s, a county coroner took photographs of a suicide victim -- a woman who died in the back seat of her car, which then sat in blazing sun for many hours.
Under the state's open records law, I received permission to view the photos; she looked as awful as you might imagine. The law allowed me to get copies of the photos, and my newspaper could have published them.
But we did not, because they would have greatly upset our readers. I was able to tell her story without the photos' publication.
The county coroner's release of the photos did not obligate us to publish them, nor did it reflect on the newspaper's attitude toward that government.
7:40 That was a suicide. Osama's death was a state-sanctioned killing. This was done in our name, and I want to know what is done in my name because I go abroad from time to time and don't particularly like hiding my citizenship. I also paid for this. I have no similar responsibility for a suicide.
ReplyDeleteWe released the pictures of Saddam's two sons a few years ago, and for similar reasons. If you don't like the pictures, then vote against the war or do something else to stop your government from doing this.
I should add I also am in favor of photos of judicial executions. Same argument. I have covered one and know what I am talking about here.
Also I would recall the recent TV series the Civil War, in which it was noted that people were really upset when the first pictures of bodies on the battlefield were circulated in that war. Death faces us all. We don't need to sanitize it.
P.S. Listen to our political leaders and you hear the refrain that Osama's fate sends a message not to make war on the United States. The picture drives that message home.
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ReplyDeletePage views make it worth it. Even if every comment is negative, even if people swear off using our site forever, it's worth it. We'll bury it under two other pages to triple the ad views, maybe sell a sponsorship besides.
ReplyDeleteMaybe to a golf course - "Come to Walden Ponds Golf Club - where it won't take 10 years to get YOUR hole-in-one!"
It's long past time that you newspapers stop coddling the public. Whatever happened to news anyway. It is time the US public began seeing the true images of what we have been doing around the world. European newspapers are showing what the results of our wars are. If we began starting to see horrific images of burning children running down the street and our young men and women with half their bodies blown off I truly believe we would begin a different path. Celebrating a death? What kind of people have we become? I'm no pacifist, but our hubris will be our downfall if we don't begin to recognize the truth and it ought to begin with the newspapers giving us the real goods, not watered down entertainment in order to pacify their advertisers.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those occasions where using the pictures is a necessity. It's the biggest news story in the world right now, and people want proof. Conspiracy theorists are already spinning implausible tales that Bin Laden's still alive, probably running a chip shop with Elvis and James Dean. This is concrete evidence that should be shared with the world. Run it with sane, sober analysis and coverage. Run it with an apology to readers. Run it without sensationalising, sure. But run it.
ReplyDeleteThe longer this goes on, the more arguments accumulate against posting the picture publicly. I read now that his family and his daughter who lived with him in Pakistan say Osama was killed and the pro-Osama demonstrations look muted to me. It's sort of like Elvis or Adolf Hitler sightings: after a while people have to answer the question that if Elvis is alive, how come there's not been a new song? And if Hitler is alive, why no new speech or interview admitting where he went wrong? (But I am anticipating the Osama diaries, based on those captured computers.).
ReplyDeleteObama now says he won't release the photos.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the White House doesn't invite the media -- especially Fox News and Al Jazeera -- to inspect the bin Laden photos on a look-but-don't-make-copies basis?
It's because he's not actually dead this is an elaborate way for Obama to boost his political rating.
ReplyDeleteThey will be released. Either there will be a FOIA release, or if they are classified, we will wait 30 years. I seem to recall the Soviets did not release the pictures of Hitler's burned corpse for a long time after World War II ended, but those pictures eventually came out.
ReplyDelete4:07 That's absurd. If bin Laden's alive, he will make that known as quickly as he can, by distributing a video; some other image, or meeting with confederates. He would never give the U.S. the satisfaction of claiming victory.
ReplyDeleteJim at 4:01: That would legitimize Fox.
ReplyDelete4:07 That's absurd. If bin Laden's alive, he will make that known as quickly as he can, by distributing a video; some other image, or meeting with confederates. He would never give the U.S. the satisfaction of claiming victory.
ReplyDelete5/04/2011 4:30 PM
He's alive just watch and see!