PressEthic

I am all for the news remaining PG. Despite accusations that video games and action movies have numbed American sensitivity towards violence and death, my brain, for one, definitely responds differently to fictional death than REAL death. Hurricane Katrina has been devastating enough without inflicting one more mental scar on American audiences . . . visions of decaying bodies laying in the streets. Don’t get me wrong, I CARE! I just don’t want to be haunted by the images for the rest of my life.

I also disagree that “censoring” images somehow hinders journalists from making a lasting powerful impression. I was in London on March 11th, 2003, scheduled to fly to Madrid, Spain on the 13th. I learned about the terrorist train bombings from an abandoned newspaper lying on a breakfast table at my hostel. One article’s description made me see the scene in a way I’m sure no photograph ever could. The images described have followed me through train and subway stations in London, Madrid, Paris. . . New York.

Every once in a while, I’ll be waiting for my train at Union Square or First Avenue, and I’ll blink. Just for a second, I’ll see in my mind’s eye. . . blood dripping from the ceiling, limbs scattered across the platform. . . I remember an account of one eye-witness being most traumatized by all the cell phones, ringing in the pockets of corpses. The human imagination can be a horrible thing. Words are powerful. . . and at least they are less likely to give children nightmares.