The US and showing graphic images is really quite funny. We won’t show actual corpses, which can be pretty unnerving, but primetime tv is chock full of examples of graphic images on those dumb CSI shows and their ilk. I really don’t get it.
Additionally, showing the consequence of war might actually have the unintended effect on public opinion of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. because of how graphic it is. Seeing dead and mutilated bodies, especially women, children, the elderly, and noncombants would certainly turn most people off from violence. Americans have been pretty darn insulated when it comes to war, with the only examples being acute (yet drastic) a decade ago and another 70 years ago. Very little exposure to that, even in domestic stuff like shootings, accidents, etc. Yet we’re willing to depict that stuff on a nightly soap opera.
And to top it all off, we have an extremely puritanical stance on sex and sexual related images. Not to say that there should be porn everywhere, but we don’t pass something natural like the body or reproduction the same as bashing in someone’s skull or running them over. You can show 90% of the female breast, but as soon as you put a nipple on it, it becomes obscene, even though it nearly is identical to males (well most of them, anyway) besides possibly size (well again, maybe not so different in some) and shape. Had Janet Jackson had a pasty on, nobody would have given a crap…ok, a few would, but still it’s ridiculous, especially when it was bookended by 30 minutes of guys pounding the crap out of each other. I went to France and they had commercials freely showing T&A which I thought was cool because: A) I was seeing T&A B) it certainly couldn’t hurt your sales and C) it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Everyone had seen that before.
As far as bin Laden being dead, I believe it:
- There is a lot more to lose than gain if it’s a lie
- Al Qaeda confirmed it
- There are pics of the other victims at the exact compound identified earlier leaked by a Pakistani official
I mean, if you want evidence for every death announced, then you couldn’t believe any death unless you saw it with you own eyes essentially. Hitler, Stalin, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, JFK, etc., etc…