The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s brutal murder this week of Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh presents a dilemma for U.S. media: Should images of the execution be aired or should they be withheld from the public?
Right-leaning news organizations, including Fox News and Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze, say the images should be shown to the public, arguing that it will better help the American people to understand the terrifying nature of the Islamic State, which controls portions of Iraq and Syria.
“We feel you need to see it,” Fox News’ Bret Baier said Tuesday evening just before airing an image of al-Kaseasbeh’s fiery death. “The images are brutal. They are graphic. They are upsetting. You may want to turn away. You may want to have the children leave the room right now.”
He said Fox News decided to broadcast images of al-Kasasbeh’s death in order “to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism.”
Elsewhere, on Fox News’ webpage, the Islamic State execution video was made available in its entirety, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from a handful of pundits.
“They’re a terror organisation,” terror analyst Rick Nelson told the Guardian, adding that Fox News is aiding the Islamic State by showing images of the execution. “They seek to strike terror in the hearts and minds of people globally, and by perpetuating these videos and putting them out there into the Internet, it certainly expands the audience and potential effects.”
“These groups need a platform, and this gives them a platform,” he said.
Fox News in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner stood by its decision to embed the video on its website.
“After careful consideration, we decided that giving readers of FoxNews.com the option to see for themselves the barbarity of [the Islamic State] outweighed legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video,” the network’s executive editor John Moody said. “Online users can choose to view or not view this disturbing content.”
YouTube has removed video of the brutal execution and Facebook informed reporters Tuesday that it would remove uploads of the video.
Separately, in a note posted to TheBlaze, conservative radio and television host Glenn Beck echoed Fox News’ sentiments, saying that all must see the horrors of the Islamic State. [Disclosure: This reporter was previously employed by TheBlaze.]
“After looking at the images again, I believe it is important for the world to see them. We have been lured into a poppy field where we have fallen fast asleep as grave danger quickly approaches,” Beck wrote.
“It is time to wake up. This is the enemy of all mankind. Make no mistake, this is a global jihad and it has everything to do with ‘their’ religion and their fundamental interpretation of the Koran,” he added.
Meanwhile, the New York Daily News, which chose earlier this year to censor French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons mocking Islam and Muhammad, published images of al-Kasasbeh’s murder.
But not everyone agreed with the decision to publish images of the Jordanian pilot’s death.
“CNN is not showing images of the killing, which triggered global condemnation and prompted immediate promises of retaliation and protests in Jordan, one of more than 60 nations involved in the U.S.-led coalition against [the Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria,” a network spokesman said Tuesday.
Other news groups — many of which also chose to avoid publishing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons this year, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and NBC News —remained consistent Tuesday, choosing to report on al-Kasasbeh’s death without including images of his gruesome murder.
