"...It's not the job of the media to protect the nation from the reality of war. Rather, it is up to the media to tell the people the truth. They can handle it."

Those were the "good ole days" when the Free Press used it's freedom to press the issues...when journalists knew their "pen was mightier than the sword"--and used it fervently to cut down psychopathic lies! Where are our John Swinton's and Joseph Pullitzer's today!?

“There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

-- John Swinton (1880) preeminent N.Y. journalist and editor of The New York Times during the Civil War

“I know that my retirement will make no difference in its cardinal principles, that it (St Louis Post-Dispatch) will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.”

Joseph Pulitzer (1907) in his farewell speech upon retirement from The St. Louis Dispatch

Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 00:40 EDT

"Howell said some readers felt the photo of the Iraqi boy was 'an anti-war statement; some thought it was in poor taste.' Well, so is war."

I simply cannot fathom the mentality behind a person saying a soulless thing such as "it is an anti-war statement". For that thought to cross someone's mind, BEFORE the abject horror depicted in the photo, can only be the thought of a psychopath, or severely ponerized individual. Secondly, the people thinking such things must clearly be in favour of war, DESPITE the clear-as-daylight evidence for the horror that it unleashes. Yet more proof of their psychopathy.

Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 03:27 EDT

"Some mothers said they were offended that their children might see the picture, though one wonders whether their youngsters watch television and play with violent videos in a pretend world."

I cannot conceive of a mother - a MOTHER - who would object to knowing about the suffering of another mother - even an Iraqi mother - who has lost a beautiful, precious child! That's like saying that this child's death does not matter!

It DOES matter! Every single one of them matters! And for those who seek to shut out this reality, to turn away from it, be assured, that is the action most likely to bring the reality into your own life. Any mother who cannot stand up for the suffering of any other mother may very well find herself facing that very agony with no one to stand up for her.

A mother who does not feel the suffering of other mothers does not deserve the title.

Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 07:40 EDT

To see the photo above was surely shocking, but I do not regret having seen it, as it appears that those who wrote to the newspaper criticising it did. What would we truly know about the gloomy and crude reality of war were it not for courageous men and women who take photos which, by the stark and dim scene they captured, imprint themselves in our minds? The two Vietnamese photos cited in the article are already for a long time inside me, I can picture them perfectly inside my head: But why? Because they are shocking, of course!! Shocking pictures have the divine power of waking us up to the hellish quagmire we placed ourselves in, at least for a few, precious moments. At least.

Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 11:51 EDT

Yes, that picture is shocking. It is shocking to see the reality of what we are doing in Iraq. There should be such a shocking picture on the front page of every newspaper in the U.S. every single day! The caption could always be the same: Another child dead in your name.

Wake up, people. We are not "spreading democracy" or "liberating Iraq," we are killing. Period. We are killing so that a small few will profit. Please, look at that picture again. Look long and hard. Imagine it is your child, or the child of someone close to you. Think of the heart breaking grief, how you would likely want to die yourself. Let that picture break your heart. Look until tears flow uncontrollably. Then you'll begin to get an idea of what we are doing in Iraq.

Another child dead in your name.

Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 16:33 EDT