Followup: WaPo Ombudsman Responds to Haditha Photo Controversy
I received an unexpected phone call late yesterday afternoon – Deborah Howell, ombudsman for the Washington Post, rang me in response to my article on WaPo’s editorial decision to not run or print some graphic photos from the Haditha, Iraq massacre.
The conversation was quite cordial. I reiterated the concerns that I raised earlier. And I also explained that I understood – truly understood – the desire to avoid controversy with WaPo’s readership, were the photos to be published. However, I explained that the decision would be more understandable if the images were out in the wild, ala Saddam’s hanging. If the images were accessible in some other location, then it would truly be an editorial decision not to offend readers. The problem is: that’s not the case. The Washington Post is apparently the only media organization which has possession of the Haditha massacre photos.
My original arguments stand. Without photographic evidence, how easy would it be for the David Duke contingent & Holocaust deniers to make a credible case that the Holocaust didn’t really happen? The iconic photos from Vietnam that I published in my original article helped change public perception (and by extension, the course) of the Vietnam war. All of these pictures are graphic and horrifying – but they make a point and record history in a way that mere words can not.
Let’s revisit the words from page A14 of this past Sunday’s Washington Post:
…Among the images, there is a young boy with a picture of a helicopter on his pajamas, slumped over, his face and head covered in blood. There is a mother lying on a bed, arms splayed, the bodies of three young children huddled against her right side. There are men with gaping head wounds, and a woman and a child hunkered down on their knees, their hands frozen around their faces as if permanently bracing for an attack.
While the words above provide a graphic description, they are easily forgotten and do not carry the weight of pictures. Page A14 becomes birdcage liner and we move on.
Ms. Howell called me back a second time in the early evening, and told me that she has requested that she be allowed to view the photos. In speaking with her editors, she was told that the pictures are not iconic in nature, and are closer to “morgue shots”. The point is: it doesn’t matter. The pictures were taken in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, and bear witness to a heinous crime in a war that is so very distant from our national psyche. So, almost by default, the pictures become iconic if they impact our perceptions of and conversations about the war in Iraq.
I don’t doubt for a moment that images of a young boy with half his head blown off would be disturbing. Images frozen in time of a murdered mother huddling in fear with her murdered children would make anyone cringe. The images become a Pompeii-type record of the atrocities committed in our country’s name.
On the day that George Bush will be committing tens of thousands more troops and untold billions of dollars in an effort to salvage his legacy and rectify his prior mistakes, we need to cringe as a nation. We need to see what Bush’s commitment is buying. We need to fully understand why the insurgency exists, and why the hatred of U.S. policy runs so deeply with a large segment of the Iraqi population.
As we closed our conversation, Ms. Howell promised me that she would get back to me and give me her opinion after she has viewed the pictures. (It’s also important to note that Ms. Howell doesn’t have the ability to make an editorial decision, but in her position, she can champion for the release of the photos.)
I truly hope that our collective voices on this issue will make a difference. If WaPo’s editorial decision stands, then they should consider, at a minimum, releasing the photos into the wild since the Post is (again, apparently) the only news organization that has the pictures.
If you’d care to express your opinion, Ms. Howell can be reached at:
Deborah Howell
202-334-7582
ombudsman@washpost.com
If you call or write her, be nice, and build a logical case for publishing some or all of the pictures. And when (or if) Ms. Howell gets back to me, I’ll post a followup.
Richard Blair | Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
The New York Herald Sun 