News-Info-Alerts

Re: CBS - Shame On You

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 23, 2003

For those of us in metro NY, CBS television runs a nightly news segment called "Shame On You"... an in-your-face, slap-on-the-wrist, you-did-bad, airing of some ne'er do well individual or corrupt company that needs to be spotlighted for their midsdeeds.

After the horrorific series of events today in which about a dozen US soldiers were ambushed and captured, with some injured, others murdered, the even more horrifying al Jazeera/Iraq News Agency tapes of bodies and POWs was aired by ...CBS.

SHAME ON YOU!

Family members have already contacted us... devastated by the thought that CBS and others believe the media's 'free press, free speech' and the public's 'right ot know' supercede the family's RIGHT TO KNOW FIRST and their RIGHT TO PRIVACY.

The media's "rights" have extended into exploitation and becoming a tool of propaganda. Where is the dignity, decorum and respect for the deceased? Consideration for the families of those murdered and those captured? Any thought that the families had not yet been contacted? The only respect you will see is when one of the networks scoops the others by getting a money-shot of one of the bereaved family members or when an interviewer "respectfully" asks the family member what they think of the war now.

The mainstream networks have held off on airing the tape (roughly 6 minutes in length) at the request of the Pentagon pending family notifications, but plan on airing it in the very near future.

Although we believe that the public has a right to know and that scrutiny and oversight by an informed public, family members and others is necesary, (considering the history of this issue), the families have a RIGHT TO KNOW FIRST. It is inconceivable that any news agency would run such graphic footage knowing full-well that confirmations on missing were not yet in hand much less family notifications completed.

Anyone wishing to tell CBS SHAME ON YOU may do so by contacting the CBS News President Andrew Heyward at the following addresses:

Mr. Andrew Heyward
News President
CBS News
555 W. 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
Main Number (National):
212-975-4114

And now for the rest of the story...

"Networks Holding off on Showing Video of Captured American Soldiers in Iraq
By David Bauder The Associated Press
Published: Mar 23, 2003

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. television networks were weighing Sunday whether to air video footage, shown elsewhere in the world, of what appeared to be American prisoners and also of a morgue containing dead bodies claimed to be those of Americans.

The images were picked up from Iraqi television by the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said the Geneva Conventions make it illegal for prisoners to be pictured and humiliated, adding that "television networks that carry such pictures are, I would say, doing something that's unfortunate."

That left network executives with agonizing decisions involving both matters of taste and the question of whether they were letting the Pentagon influence their independent newsgathering decisions.

A snippet of the POW footage was shown on CBS, shortly after it was received from Al-Jazeera, while Rumsfeld was being interviewed on "Face the Nation." The network held off from showing it again after the Pentagon asked for time to contact the families of the soldiers involved.

"I consider that a legitimate request and I don't have any qualms about agreeing to it. The issue of sensitivity to the families is valid," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said.

As for the dead bodies, Heyward said networks have to be careful not to be used for propaganda purposes and not to show unnecessarily gruesome pictures.

In the Iraqi television footage, at least five prisoners, including one woman, were interviewed separately. Two were bandaged. They all looked terrified, with one captive who said he was from Kansas answering his questions in a shaky voice, his eyes darting back and forth between his interviewer and another person.

ABC News President David Westin said the network was giving the Pentagon "a reasonable period of time" to contact the families of the POWs before airing the tape.

"I always appreciate hearing Secretary Rumsfeld's viewpoint or that of any government official that we take into account," Westin said. "But we'd make our own judgment as to whether it was newsworthy."

The footage of the dead soldiers would never air on ABC, he said.

"There's no reason to air it," he said. "It's not newsworthy."

Representatives at NBC News, which controls both the network and the cable channel MSNBC, and Fox News Channel said the issue of airing the footage was being discussed and that no decisions had been made.

CNN aired a single still image from the POW footage that provided no identifying features. The network said it still was considering whether to air the prisoner video, but would not show the dead bodies.

Associated Press Television News, which distributes video to broadcasters all over the world, planned to transmit images of the POWs when the Defense Department said their families had been notified, said Nigel Baker, APTN's director of content.

As for the pictures of the bodies, Baker said, "We will not be transmitting that on taste grounds."

Another issue executives must be considering is the wisdom of crossing the Pentagon at a time the government has agreed to let hundreds of journalists be embedded with military units. Thus far, television networks said they have been pleased with the access to action granted by the Pentagon.

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AP Television Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report.

© 2003, Media General Inc. "