Does a newspaper or a television news show go too far when shocking photos illustrate a news story? Cynthia Halatyn raised and answered that question in a Daily Campus editorial on Aug. 26. Horrified by her hometown newspaper’s graphic picture of a fatal car accident that killed her friend, and by a troubling image from the Iraq War, Ms. Halatyn accused the press of publishing graphic photos as a way to increase profit through shock value. “Disregarding any legal limits on what kinds of photos can be published, what are the limits of decency?” she asked.
First of all, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to Ms. Halatyn. The following is not an attack on her article, opinions or person.
It is the duty of the American press to disregard “legal limits” concerning the media. For more information about this, refer to the Constitution of the United States of America, the First Amendment.
Graphic photos do not fall into the category of either libel or slander. So the publication of the photo of the Iraqi man carrying his nephew was published under The Dallas Morning News’ code of common decency. Their ultimate decision on what is too much for the American public operates on a decency limit, not a legal limit. Certainly ethical standards guide the media, but they are not regulated by law.
The media has done a great disservice to the American people by sugarcoating the war in Iraq. The pain and suffering on both sides has been prettified to appeal to the masses. This photo was one of the few that accurately depicts raw human emotion and exemplifies the distress of the Iraqi people.
Grief has become standard to most Iraqi people, and pain and suffering are the norm. Images attach a face to the statistics we hear about everyday. It is time the American public saw this grief.
I had two friends die in January of drug and alcohol overdoses. Do you know what I would have loved to see? A full-page spread of photos showing their discolored, bloating bodies in full color. Maybe the asphyxiated stares would scare a teenager dabbling in drugs to go straight.
Maybe their deaths could have had a positive effect on the world. Maybe a picture of a smashed SUV would deter other drivers from feeling invincible behind the wheel of one. Wouldn’t that be worth it? Sometimes pictures can impose a lasting effect on the soul and psyche where words such as “don’t do drugs” and “drive carefully” just seem to fade away.
If you don’t see it you might not believe it. If you see a hungry man begging for money and you avert your eyes. He is still hungry, he is still begging, and he is still there. The media exposes these things in an effort to invoke feeling.
The Dallas Morning News recently ran an article entitled, “Photos Spoke Volumes.” This article supports the explicit publication of a photo taken in 1955 of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was beaten, shot and lynched for whistling at a white woman. The photo is called “the first great media event of the civil rights movement.”
The gruesome photo served justice for Tills and exposed the atrocities of racism. It spurred a call for change and remained burned into the minds of many Americans as a lesson never to allow this kind of intolerant and brutal act to be committed again.
The freedom to see raw human emotion that accompanies the significant events that mark our lives and define our time is our gift from the Founding Fathers of this great nation. We should embrace this gift and use it to take action, examine the truth and endorse change.
Sarah Gibbons is a junior accounting major. She may be reached at [email protected].
