You Say Gaddafi, I Say Qaddafi
This post is the final one of the Mirror Series. If this is your first visit to the Mirror Series, please click here and follow the arrows at the top right of each post to read the series from the beginning. Thank you for reading!
I am officially disgusted with the American news media. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I try NOT to watch anything blaring from the major news outlets on television. I am selective about where I get my online news, and I have been a loyal reader of the New York Times for years. Surely an esteemed organization like the NY Times wouldn’t get caught up in the sleezy, icky, sensationalistic reporting we see everywhere else.
That notion was shot to smithereens when I opened the paper yesterday and saw a picture of Gaddafi‘s bullet-ridden carcass. Or Qaddafi. While our American news media cannot decide how to spell the man’s name, they are thrilled to show us slow-motion clips of blood spewing from his body. They can’t wait to show us images of him dead, Dead, DEAD.
Yes, I think he was a Very Bad Man. He did Very Bad Things. But do I really want to see him, or anyone else for that matter, expiring on my computer screen like a scene from a horror movie? Can I feel safe opening reputable publications these days, when one I respected sees fit to print his blood-spattered image on its pages?
When we hold ourselves up to the mirror, what does it say about us as a society that we clamor for constant images of destruction and death, yet we arrest people in our cities for violating a municipal ordinance against using a megaphone on a public street?
I am disgusted with what I see in our mirror.
Amen, Sister! Just because modern technology allows us to see and hear just about anything instantaneously does not make it appropriate to just ignore any type of filtering process.
I really don’t want to see the gory details, period!
If I want mayhem, I’ll watch the Road Runner and Wile e Coyote.
Lou, that was too funny. I had flash backs to my childhood where I watch this cartoon many times. LOL…
That is most excellent mayhem. I still love cartoons.
I’ve managed to avoid the photos but it’s just another example of hypocrisy reigning supreme.
I always try to avoid them. This particular one was just right there when I turned the page.
You speak the truth, Andra…we seem to have lost our sense of discernment between theatre and reality. the Romans did the same….
What’s even more perverse is that our much trumpeted “reality” shows are anything but. They only present the caricatured extremes of everything.
If “reality” shows were real, they’d show us waking up, drinking coffee, going to work, running errands, doing the dishes.
I once got to see a marathon version of one of the Real Housewives. That was enough to last a lifetime.
I think “Surreality Show” would be more accurate.
Ha! Why don’t we start calling them that all the time. Maybe it will stick.
Over the past 40-50 years, particularly, we have been so focused on not stepping on anyone’s toes (translate “rights”)…on being politically correct…on being first…on obtaining the highest ratings…on the “right” to know…etc., etc., ad nauseam, that all manner of decorum, common sense, civility (even protection of our childrens’ “rights” NOT to know everything) has been abandoned along the way. To repeat the oft-used statement of a younger sister, “It’s just SICK and WRONG!”
And yes, Kate, Rome is burning . . .
And, it is hard for me to know what to do with it all. I am absolutely not for censorship. I just wish these things had layers.
I had the exact same feeling of disgust when I opened NYT yesterday. It’s aggravating and sad at the same time. Where has all the good taste gone? Because I’m seeing a lot of poor taste as a norm.
That photo could totally have been available online as a “click here if you really want to see the corpse of the dictator.” Those people could click. I wouldn’t. Everybody would have what they want.
While I completely understand your point we have also gone the other way. I spent my childhood watching Vietnam on the news at dinner and the destruction and violence shown committed both to our soldiers, the civilian population, and the other fighters, was a powerful disincentive to war. I saw the various Presidents and other politicians greeting the caskets of American soldiers and I saw their families grieving. Two of the most important photographs in my lifetime were the pictures of the dead students, killed by their own government at Kent and Jackson States, which were shown on front pages all over the country and the world
We may be allowed to see dictators and other bad folk’s bodies and glory in our conquest but we are no longer permitted to see what we have caused to be done to ourselves and in our name…
Robert, I suspect the news media’s portrayals of those same events today would differ dramatically from the way they were shown then. That era produced some of our best journalists, when journalism was REALLY journalism, not cinema of the sensational. It was more “what do people need to see to understand the story” versus “what do we need to show here to drive ratings, fill dead air, and sell subscriptions.”
As a father, I believe you should be able to teach Abigail how you interpret these things that happen in the world, and that means letting her see these images if that is part of how you can do that. I just think there should be layers there, and I should be able to make a choice to look at something rather than having it thrust in my face. Sometimes, I would make that choice. In this case, I would not.
I have to say that I agree with Andra on this one.
Does the picture of a bullet ridden body make the person more dead? NO….. Is it necessary for everyone, all over the globe, to see the gory details? Is there any honor in what we have seen? NO. Yes, I know, this man was a dictator and was probably responsible for the death and destruction of many people. Maybe he had that coming to him. Maybe we should not be the judge and jury over him. Maybe we should not glory in his demise. If we do, then perhaps we are no better than the people who did this. I think that even in justice there can be dignity and honor. Life is precious and we should never lose sight of that no matter who it is.
“even in justice there can be dignity and honor”….superb, James.
In justice there can be dignity and honor. Absolutely.
Well said James!
Recently I read this which i particularly apt here-from Martha Beck in O Magazine:
“I noticed a long time ago that fear often comes packaged with enthrallment. We don’t look away from accidents or guns; we give them our rapt attention. This tendency has obvious evolutionary advantages—it’s safer to keep deadly objects front-of-mind than to ignore them—and as a result, our brains seem to be hardwired so that scary experiences contain hidden fascination, and fascinating experiences are often scary.
In fact, I’d argue that there’s a direct correlation between the intensity of our fear and the degree of our fascination: Murder yanks our attention harder than heart disease; an earthquake is more interesting than a bad sunburn. This applies even at the much lower fear levels that characterize most of our lives. Think TV dramas: Arguments are more attention grabbing than agreement; the path of true love more interesting when it’s forbidden and dangerous than when it runs smoothly.”
Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Overcoming-Fear-How-to-Conquer-Your-Fears#ixzz1bcVgviCe
Thanks for posting this link, Cheryl. Some great reading material while I sit by the pool.
No, it’s not news, it’s entertainment. Think Roman Colosseum.
I know. This proclivity is ancient, isn’t it?
Brava, Andra. Shame on sensationalists, who I suspect are not trying to confront anyone with the grim reality of brutal justice or make any other philosophical point, but who are simply pandering to the train-wreck rubberneckers.
Sometimes, it does feel like we are drowning in a sensationalist sea.
I have to jump on the “I agree” bandwagon. Just because the news media can show something, doesn’t mean they should. I find the pictures and glorification of this kind of thing reprehensible – no matter who the subject in question is.
Hope you had a good workshop and are now having a great retreat!
Workshop was a roller coaster. I am gearing up to sit in a BORING class all day tomorrow, so tweet or G+ me as much as you like.
As an African I am glad he has gone and that Lybia can start to re-build. As a human I am ashamed of the sensational pictures of his body.
I share your views, both of them.
Agree COMPLETELY on both your views. If the world really needed “proof” that Gaddafi/Qaddafi was dead, perhaps a few pictures should have been taken of the body at his funeral? (Unless, of course, he wasn’t cleaned up). There was no need for the world to see this barbarism.
Well, this is an easy protest. I can just choose not to watch.