Randy Dotinga: "Press Wrestles With Grim Clips": May 26, 2004

"American news organizations are walking a fine line between good journalism and bad form as they try to cover the war in Iraq without alienating readers and viewers. [...] Many Americans support the media's watchdog role of investigating and exposing prisoner abuse, while others worry that repeated display of shocking photos may cross boundaries of propriety at home or prompt new attacks on Americans abroad. In seeking the right balance, mainstream news organizations are grappling not only with their own traditions but with emerging rivals, such as the Internet and talk radio. [...] Local and national radio talk-show hosts, including Fox News commentator and bestselling author Sean Hannity, aired the unedited audio of the Berg video, complete with the victim's gruesome screams. "I know you don't want to hear this. But you should make yourself hear it, because it is ... evil in your midst," Mr. Hannity said. [...] 52 percent [of Americans] disapprove of the release of the prison-abuse photos. A similar question in a CBS News poll found 43 percent objecting to the images' release. [...] liberals wanted to see more prison photos, while conservatives clamored for more images of Berg to show terrorists are "barbarians.""
[Christian Science Monitor]