Sunday, June 11, 2006
Cable News Channels Show Little Restraint Covering al-Zarqawi's Death
This from David Zurawik and Nick Madigan's column in the Balitmore Sun: "On the MSNBC site, pictures of the dead insurgent's face ran under banner headlines that said, "Terminated." The framing of al-Zarqawi's face suggested a Wanted poster from the Old West - or recalled film images of the hanging of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini near the end of World War II.
On Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, anchorman Chris Wallace said of al-Zarqawi, "This is the baddest man in the world - we shouldn't forget that."
Visitors to CNN's Web site, meanwhile, were urged to play video of the bombing run that killed al-Zarqawi, with U.S. Gen. George W. Casey's voice walking them through the landscape: "The lead aircraft is going to engage [the site] momentarily with a 500-pound bomb on the target." It was the most-played video of the day at www.cnn.com.
"I think it's important for the American media not to turn this into a Star Search kind of a thing where you have one super-celebrity in al-Zarqawi and you make a huge deal out it, when the fact is that the insurgency is so much more complicated," said Philip Seib, author of Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War."
DCG comments: If cable news channels just stuck with reporting the facts and leaving opinion and commentary out of the mix everything would be fine. BUT as we all know they have to throw "what they think" in there.
On Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, anchorman Chris Wallace said of al-Zarqawi, "This is the baddest man in the world - we shouldn't forget that."
Visitors to CNN's Web site, meanwhile, were urged to play video of the bombing run that killed al-Zarqawi, with U.S. Gen. George W. Casey's voice walking them through the landscape: "The lead aircraft is going to engage [the site] momentarily with a 500-pound bomb on the target." It was the most-played video of the day at www.cnn.com.
"I think it's important for the American media not to turn this into a Star Search kind of a thing where you have one super-celebrity in al-Zarqawi and you make a huge deal out it, when the fact is that the insurgency is so much more complicated," said Philip Seib, author of Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War."
DCG comments: If cable news channels just stuck with reporting the facts and leaving opinion and commentary out of the mix everything would be fine. BUT as we all know they have to throw "what they think" in there.
# posted by ATN @ 10:50 PM 
