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The Media Asks: "Does Posting A Horrific Video Serve a Legitimate Journalistic Purpose?"

posted by janrinok on Friday February 06 2015, @11:35PM   
from the depends-which-side-you-are-on dept.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Erik Wemple writes at the Washington Post that Fox News recently took the controversial step of posting a horrific 22-minute video online that shows Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death warning internet users that the presentation features "extremely graphic video." "After careful consideration, we decided that giving readers of FoxNews.com the option to see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS outweighed legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video," said Fox executive John Moody. "Online users can choose to view or not view this disturbing content."

But Fox's decision drew condemnation from some terrorism experts. "[Fox News] are literally — literally — working for al-Qaida and ISIS's media arm," said Malcolm Nance. "They might as well start sending them royalty checks." YouTube removed a link to the video a few hours after it was posted, and a spokesperson for Facebook told the Guardian that if anyone posted the video to the social networking site it would be taken down. CNN explained that it wouldn't surface any of the disturbing images because they were gruesome and constituted propaganda that the network didn't want to distribute. "Does posting this video advance the aims of this terror group or hinder its progress by laying bare its depravity?" writes Wemple. "Islamic State leaders may indeed delight in the distribution of the video — which could be helpful in converting extremists to its cause — but they may be mis-calibrating its impact. If the terrorists expected to intimidate the world with their display of barbarity, they may be disappointed with the reaction of Jordan, which is vowing "strong, earth-shaking and decisive" retaliation."

• About the letter to Baghdadi About the letter to Baghdadi (Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Saturday February 07 2015, @08:51PM

  by fritsd (4586) on Saturday February 07 2015, @08:51PM (#142295) Journal

  Thanks for the informative link Arik. Blimey but that epistle is difficult to read. I guess IANAMufti :-)

  Your link is much more informative than any video of horrible acts perpetrated by IS.

  It is not clear to me who wrote it. Is that on purpose?

  To people surfing to that site: you have to click on the little yellow arrows to turn the pages. It uses Adobe Flash. It is long and boring so brew some tea or coffee. It might make you sick to your stomach reading about IS.

  I liked paragraph 4 "Difference of opinion" about "severity", and paragraph 7 "killing emissaries" about the journalists, which is very clearly written.

  About par. 11: are Magians the same as Zoroastrians?

  Paragraph 18 about mutilation has a very prophetic comment, I think:

  "You have provided ample ammunition for all those who want to call Islam barbaric with your broadcasting of barbaric acts which you pretend are for the sake of Islam. You have given the world a stick with which to beat Islam whereas in reality Islam is completely innocent of these acts and prohibits them."

  I am reminded of a certain blonde politician from the Netherlands who is in full agreement with that statement :-/ .

  par. 21: hmph. Old-fashioned. And what is the issue with wrinkly Ethiopians anyway?

  Also the arrogance of these people: par. 22 about the caliphate:

  "who gave you authority over the ummah? Was it your group? If this is the case, then a group of no more than several thousand has appointed itself the ruler of over a billion and a half Muslims. This attitude is based upon a corrupt circular logic that says: ‘Only we are Muslims, and we decide who the caliph is, we have chosen one and so whoever does not accept our caliph is not a Muslim.’ In this case, a caliph is nothing more than the leader of a certain group that declares more than 99% of Muslims non-Muslim."

  At the end of the letter I notice that some of the signatories are from Nigeria and Chad, I bet they're applying the same text to Boko Haram and come to the same conclusion about those criminals.

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• Re:About the letter to Baghdadi (Score: 1) by Arik on Saturday February 07 2015, @09:19PM

  by Arik (4543) on Saturday February 07 2015, @09:19PM (#142306) Journal

  "It is not clear to me who wrote it. Is that on purpose?"
  
  I believe the first 11 signatories claim joint authorship, they are the ones pictured if you scroll down the page a bit, starting with Sheikh bin Bayyah of Abu Dhabi and going through Prof. Din Syamsuddin of Indonesia.
  
  "To people surfing to that site: you have to click on the little yellow arrows to turn the pages. It uses Adobe Flash. It is long and boring so brew some tea or coffee. It might make you sick to your stomach reading about IS."
  
  Actually easier. Disable flash. Scroll down the page to where it says 'download translations' and click English (or whatever you prefer.)
  
  "About par. 11: are Magians the same as Zoroastrians?"
  
  Yes, another name for the same thing.
  
  "At the end of the letter I notice that some of the signatories are from Nigeria and Chad, I bet they're applying the same text to Boko Haram and come to the same conclusion about those criminals."
  
  Yes. Boko Haram is a big worry there, and they make a point of killing any legitimate religious scholars they find btw.
  
  

  --
  If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?

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