New York Post Online Edition: postopinion AFTER terrorists beheaded Korean hostage Kim Sun-il, The New York Times kept the photo showing the horror of his final moments off yesterday's front page.
Instead, the Times' front page bizarrely describes Kim as "sitting or kneeling quietly" as he waited to die — in reality the photo, back on Page A-11, shows Kim with his mouth open wide in terror, and the video shows him shaking with fear.
It's just the latest instance of how the press often hesitates to show the true savagery of America's enemies in the War on Terror, whether al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein's thugs, precisely because the images are so awful.
Last week, The Post revealed that reporters were ignoring a gruesome video of torture by Saddam's thugs while obsessing over prisoner mistreatment by a small group of U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib jail where the photos are less upsetting. Calls from readers prompted the American Enterprise Institute to post the Saddam torture video on its Web site (with warnings about the graphic content). Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" did a report — in fact, last fall Fox exclusively revealed the existence of Saddam torture videos and aired sections.........
Last fall, when Fox broke the story of the Saddam torture videos, the Times ran all of five paragraphs back on Page A-14 with a small picture — versus, so far, 181 stories on Abu Ghraib, more than 40 on the front page.
Incidentally, that Santorum-Lieberman screening of the Saddam torture video drew a roomful of reporters but resulted in just a couple of actual news reports. Christian Broadcasting Network aired the video by fuzzing the most gruesome parts.
Actually, says former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who did a tour in Baghdad training Iraqi policemen, that video isn't even the tip of the iceberg. He has 30 or 50 DVDs that show the same kind of Saddam torture and much worse.
"I've had guys from the NYPD, veteran homicide cops, whose stomachs turn when they watch it. What went on at Abu Ghraib under Saddam was 1,000 times worse, but we don't see it. They write a paragraph about it," Kerik says.
He recalls visiting Abu Ghraib about a month after Baghdad fell in 2003, a month after the last tortures and executions — the stench of blood was still so awful, like a slaughterhouse, that even he had trouble walking through it.
"When Ted Kennedy says Abu Ghraib has reopened under 'U.S. management,' the guy hasn't got a clue. It just shows what kind of world of unreality he lives in. His whole agenda is political," Kerik adds.
And there are other Saddam horrors on tape. Former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke says there are thousands of tapes of rapes by Saddam's thugs, since one of his pet practices was to rape wives in front of their husbands. Sometimes the rapes were videoed from a few different angles.
In case a husband got out of line again, he'd be sent his wife's rape tape, she says. "Who's going to show that [on TV]?" Clarke asks.
In fact, Clarke recalls, she got angry complaints from three or four networks during the Iraq war when she tried to document Saddam's horrors by beginning a briefing with part of a BBC documentary on how Saddam used poison gas on his own people.
Instead, the Times' front page bizarrely describes Kim as "sitting or kneeling quietly" as he waited to die — in reality the photo, back on Page A-11, shows Kim with his mouth open wide in terror, and the video shows him shaking with fear.
It's just the latest instance of how the press often hesitates to show the true savagery of America's enemies in the War on Terror, whether al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein's thugs, precisely because the images are so awful.
Last week, The Post revealed that reporters were ignoring a gruesome video of torture by Saddam's thugs while obsessing over prisoner mistreatment by a small group of U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib jail where the photos are less upsetting. Calls from readers prompted the American Enterprise Institute to post the Saddam torture video on its Web site (with warnings about the graphic content). Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" did a report — in fact, last fall Fox exclusively revealed the existence of Saddam torture videos and aired sections.........
Last fall, when Fox broke the story of the Saddam torture videos, the Times ran all of five paragraphs back on Page A-14 with a small picture — versus, so far, 181 stories on Abu Ghraib, more than 40 on the front page.
Incidentally, that Santorum-Lieberman screening of the Saddam torture video drew a roomful of reporters but resulted in just a couple of actual news reports. Christian Broadcasting Network aired the video by fuzzing the most gruesome parts.
Actually, says former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who did a tour in Baghdad training Iraqi policemen, that video isn't even the tip of the iceberg. He has 30 or 50 DVDs that show the same kind of Saddam torture and much worse.
"I've had guys from the NYPD, veteran homicide cops, whose stomachs turn when they watch it. What went on at Abu Ghraib under Saddam was 1,000 times worse, but we don't see it. They write a paragraph about it," Kerik says.
He recalls visiting Abu Ghraib about a month after Baghdad fell in 2003, a month after the last tortures and executions — the stench of blood was still so awful, like a slaughterhouse, that even he had trouble walking through it.
"When Ted Kennedy says Abu Ghraib has reopened under 'U.S. management,' the guy hasn't got a clue. It just shows what kind of world of unreality he lives in. His whole agenda is political," Kerik adds.
And there are other Saddam horrors on tape. Former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke says there are thousands of tapes of rapes by Saddam's thugs, since one of his pet practices was to rape wives in front of their husbands. Sometimes the rapes were videoed from a few different angles.
In case a husband got out of line again, he'd be sent his wife's rape tape, she says. "Who's going to show that [on TV]?" Clarke asks.
In fact, Clarke recalls, she got angry complaints from three or four networks during the Iraq war when she tried to document Saddam's horrors by beginning a briefing with part of a BBC documentary on how Saddam used poison gas on his own people.
Comments