As the terrorist group ISIS releases a third video purporting to show the beheading of a British aid worker, I have no doubt that the media will be continuously replaying the jolting image of the ISIS executioner, throughout the next few days, as he stands over his impending victim with his steely knife.
Granted, these are horrific events and all sympathies should be extended to the families of these individuals, who were so grotesquely murdered. It is interesting, nevertheless, how the media has been ratcheting up emotions through the highlighting of these videos.
Why, I remember when the media used to avoid inflammatory news, such as those presented by September 11 nemesis Osama bin Laden, as he vowed to carry out additional attacks on the United States, through his own frequently produced low-tech videos.
The Obama administration has not asked the national media to refrain from reporting the beheading of individuals by ISIS. This would have been so easy. All it would have to do is construct some argument that ISIS was using these videos to not only show the gruesome act of a beheading, but also to send secret messages to terrorist in the U.S. to carry out terrorist attacks. if I were cynical, perhaps this would be the place for the laughtrack.
In 2001:
Fearful that Osama bin Laden may be using TV news shows to air secret messages to fellow terrorists, the White House has convinced networks to limit the amount of play given to his statements.
Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, this morning called TV executives to raise concerns about airing pre-taped messages from bin Laden or his al Qaeda organization that could serve as signals for terrorists to incite more attacks.
In fact, the Obama administration need not construct such an argument,
for many in the media have been stating this very thing today. But, whereas such an argument was used to relegate the bin Laden videos to the confines of the internet, with hardly a mention by national news organizations during the early 2000’s, the ISIS videos are highlighted with great fervor by the major news services presently.
This was entirely different in 2001:
October 11, 2001: Five American News Networks Agree to Self-Censor Their Broadcasts of Bin Laden Statements
Five major US television networks agree to self-censor their news broadcasts of statements by Osama bin Laden and his associates. The agreement, made by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News, comes after a conference call between National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and the heads of the networks; Rice’s call comes after White House press secretary Ari Fleischer warns reporters that statements from suspected terrorists could contain anything from incitement to coded messages, and asks them not to print full transcripts of bin Laden’s messages (see October 10, 2001).
This is worth repeating:
Ari Fleischer warns reporters that statements from suspected terrorists could contain anything from incitement to coded messages
The networks assented and Fox wholeheartedly so.
In a statement that echoed those of its counterparts, Fox News said: “We believe a free press must and can bear responsibility not to be used by those who want to destroy America and endanger the lives of its citizens.”
As much as media sources such as Fox News spent little time blaming the Bush administration over the videos depicting the beheading of Americans Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl, videos that were relegated, for the most part, to the internet,
they have worked overtime to use the ISIS videos to attack the current occupant of the White House.
After terrorists kidnapped and beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, while releasing gruesome videos of the act, Fox News focused much of its ire on President Obama, portraying him as a source of troubling weakness.
On and on it goes, as the blame-America finger pointing takes up hour after hour of programming. The Washington Times' Charles Hurt on Wednesday wanted to know when Obama would stop acting like a community organizer and start hunting down the killers. Charles Krauthammer condemned Obama for not rising to the occasion, while former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Fox to claim world leaders see the president as "weak and ineffective" in the wake of the most recent beheading.
If only the Obama administration had been savvy enough to limit the reporting of these terrorist videos now being used to slam his administration and incite the emotions of the public. But, then again, this was the administration, which, unlike the Bush administration, allowed the caskets of killed U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to be filmed as they were brought home.
I would not have it any other way.