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Nightline Daily E-Mail
March 31, 2004
TONIGHT'S FOCUS: It's a horrific incident, even in the midst of war. Four Americans, on contract to the government, were ambushed in Falluja. It's what happened after that, and the pictures of all of it, that is so disturbing.
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This is a tough one. The contractors were traveling in two cars when they were attacked. The cars were set on fire, and the bodies badly burned. A crowd of cheering men gathered, and mutilated and dragged the bodies through the streets. In the end, two of the bodies were hung from a bridge. All of this happened in front of a cameraman, who recorded it all. After a career of going to bad places to document bad things, I can easily say that this is just about the worst thing I have ever seen. Will we show it tonight? Yes, and no. And that's where things get complicated. I'm sure my description above will sound very familiar to anyone who remembers those horrible images of the bodies of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Somalia. The tape of that incident played a big part in triggering the withdrawal of American troops from that country. Initially, news organizations showed those pictures, and only later decided not to use them again.
But those pictures remain the single most indelible image of the U.S. involvement in Somalia. Not the pictures of starving children being fed, or anything else, good or bad, that happened. Pictures have tremendous power. Which brings us back to tonight. Will we show you all of the pictures from today's tragedy? No. Some of them are just too horrific. There is a question of respect for the families and loved ones of those who were killed. There is also a question of taste. But that also raises the question of whether, or how, images should be sanitized. War is a horrible thing. It is about killing. If we try to avoid showing pictures of bodies, if we make it too clean, then maybe we make it too easy to go to war again. After all, these men and women are over there in our names, whether you agree with the war or not. Shouldn't we know what price we are asking them to pay? The bottom line, we can never know what the final impact of any of the images we use will be. Our job is to present, as best we can, what we know to have happened. If we start to try to determine the impact, or shape the reaction, then we are going against all of the principles of this business. And yes, we do have principles. But we get back to that question of taste.
Can we simply describe what happened today? Of course. Is it important to know all the details? Probably not. But what the pictures do show, is the hatred, the emotion, of the people who did this. And it is that hatred that is fueling the ongoing conflict. And that is something that we should see. On a purely human level, you have to ask how anyone could do something like this. I have no idea. It leaves me speechless.
Chris Bury will report tonight on the incident, and the images. Ted will anchor, and we're still working out who his guests will be. This will be a difficult broadcast both to produce and to watch, but I think it is an important one.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington D.C. bureau
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