Why are the pictures censored?

[mediaman007]

I just got done viewing the ABC News web slide show featuring the pictures of Abu Ghraib prison. Most of the pictures are blurred to hide genitals. I'm offended.

I think that these pictures should be put up with no editing. This censoring lets the right wing, Bible-thumpers get off the hook. Everyone should be forced to see the carnage that our "professional" military created.

This entire episode is disgusting. There were military professionals that wouldn't stand for this crap from their soldiers. Rummy fired them. The guys in charge wouldn't make it in Eisenhower's army. Not in Patton's army. These leaders have sold their souls. They were probably "hazers" in the academies.

Show the pictures!

edited for spelling :(

[bryant69]

1. I don't know

I mean, do you really think people aren't going to get the message without the blurring?

"Oh, well, I guess their Genetalia must not be being abused, since it's hazed. That blur is probably covering up a speedo."

I guess it doesn't bother me.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Eric J in MN]

2. Better they blur part of the photo than not show it at all (nt)

nt

[Columbia]

3. I think you mean censor

And private entities do not censor, they exercise the right to free speech, which includes *not* speaking (aka blurring) as well.

[mediaman007]

5. I did mean censor!

[jobycom]

4. I agree. This paternalism is sick, and not legal, IMO

Who says our government can tell us we can't watch what they are doing? We hire them. We should tell them what they can look at, not the other way around.

Same with the beheading. Show it on every channel. Show it to kindergartners. If we can't take the reality, we shouldn't be causing it. Reminds me of the stories of Hitler pulling down the shades in his railcar as he passed by Aushwitz.

[PretzelWarrior]

6. Baddddd photo... You're BAD!

j/k

[bpilgrim]

7. FCC

demands it... in the name of the FATHER-SON-n-holly-GHOST

peace

[Eric J in MN]

8. It's not the FCC for cable and websites.

Cable news and news-websites could show the photos without the blurring, but I don't think it matters either way.

[frankly_fedup2]

9. No we cannot see genitalia or nakedness; however,

we can see someone being murdered by terrorist live on line, and we can see all the gore, guts, dismemberment on the news and that is okay. I find the latter more offensive myself.

[yardwork]

10. We know how the * administration feels about nudity.

[bpilgrim]

12. thats where the FATHER-n-SON part comes in ;-)

peace

[Tansy_Gold]

11. I think, though I could be wrong, that the reason the pix are

"blurred" is to protect the sensibilities of the victims. They are, after all, human beings, and whether we agree with their attitude toward nudity or not, shouldn't we allow them some respect?

Of course, I realize that means our "right" to view them is limited, but I personally don't have such an overwhelming urge to stare at some tormented Iraqi's genitalia that it's going to bother me if the photos are altered.

Tansy Gold, not a voyeur

edited to add

I think it's also a violation of the Geneva Conventions to show the pix.

[thebigidea]

13. Geneva convention? How quaint. We don't have time for that...

the war effort requires FLEXIBILITY, as Rumsfeld said.

[Poiuyt]

14. Heavens! We wouldn't want to violate the Geneva Convention!

We have to uphold our image

[TexasMexican]

15. Most Americans...

probably dont want to see naked arab males.

[thebigidea]

16. now, humiliated, hooded, sometimes dead, beaten, raped, nonaked Arabs...

in that case, BRING 'EM ON! cries the Geraldo set...

[electroluxs]

17. I want them all released

The JFK autopsy, the Sharon Tate murders, the OKC victims, tha 911 jumpers. I want them ALL released!!!

[daleo]

18. In this case, I think it is probably for the best

Otherwise, they might be picked up by very unsavoury pornography sites. At any rate, the possibility that they could might give the government the angle they need to censor them outright (i.e. ban the photos altogether).

Other than that though, it does show something peculiar about social mores regarding sex and death.