Interesting Question

Douglas McKinnon would like television news to stop showing video of IED's taking out American Troops. Or such is the argument in his latest article.

Each and every aired roadside bombing was planned, executed, and filmed by Al Qaeda or other terrorists operating in that theater. Each and every one. Think about that for a moment. American network executives are eagerly showing “snuff” films of American soldiers so they can go after Bush, beat their competition, or both. In the most heinous way possible, our very networks have willingly entered into a relationship with those who mean to exterminate us all. Why?

Because of ideology and money.

If you speak with these executives and ask them to defend the indefensible, they will say, “Hey, we didn’t get this tape from Al Qaeda. We got it from the Al Jazeera network.” Okay, and who did Al Jazeera get it from?

I don't know if that is accurate or not - certainly the use of the phrase "each and every one" seems a bit of a stretch. But the idea that none of them are coming from the terrorists themselves is likewise a bit of a stretch. I certainly don't like the implication taht Al Jazeera is the same as Al Qaeda, but that's pretty typical on the right wing.

One could argue that these bombings are news no matter who films them, I suppose. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that.