Monday, February 20, 2006
Not. The Globe has jumped through rhetorical hoops looking for excuses not to publish the Mohammad cartoons, but Abu Ghraib photos? Any excuse will do to publish those, even though they, also, have put lives and missions at risk. And in spite of the Globe's editorial pages being filled with dire warnings over the impending slide of America into Fascism, The Globe's editors know damn well it isn't they who will pay any price.
In this case, they saw fit to accompany a letter to the editor with a space-filling photo of torture. That's right, just a space filler to accompany a letter. Reader Miss Kelly writes in to The Globe:
The Globe can print a photo from almost three years ago, but they can't print cartoons that have resulted In protests and riots around the world, which have resulted in 45 deaths?
In your recent column explaining why the Globe wouldn't print the Mohammed cartoons, you wrote: "Freedom of speech means that news organizations have the liberty to decide whether or not something meets strict standards of accuracy, fairness, and taste for the sake of the community." Does it meet the Boston Globe's strict standards of "accuracy, fairness, and taste for the sake of the community" to print 3-year old torture photos? Does the editor think that the reader wouldn't otherwise understand what the letter was about? Is the Boston Globe completely unconcerned with further fanning anti-American resentment in Iraq, which could very well result in more harm to US soldiers? Do these concerns ever factor into your decision-making?
Publishing that photo in today's paper was unnecessary and disgusting.
Cross-posted at Hub Politics.
