DONT SHOOT THE MESSENGER The current reporting of the atrocities committed by ISIS-ISIL in Iraq and Syria has revived the old argument about the inadvisability of shooting the messenger who brings the bad news. This very recognizable idiom seems to have originated in classical literature and an anecdote describing how a messenger who brought the news of the return of the conquering Lucullus lost his head for his trouble, an act that discouraged others from providing bad - - but albeit true – news. The same theme turns up occasionally in Shakespeare, as when Cleopatra threatens the messenger informing her of Antony’s marriage. Antigone contains the most recognizable version: No one loves the messenger who brings bad news/” All of that is by way of saying that the temptation to shoot the messenger who brings the bad news has occurred since the days of classical plays, if not earlier. Now, the debate turns up in coverage of the ISIS-ISIL crisis in Iraq and Syria. It turns on whether and to what extent news media should continuing showing ISIS-ISIL execution videos. During the Vietnam war, several versions of the debate revolved around n some of the more cruel acts of war such as the summary execution on-camera of a North Vietnamese officer. Somehow that photograph has become one of the most recognizable Vietnam War photos. The core of the argument in both cases is the same: how does the messenger balance responsibility to provide news on the one hand with good taste (or even passable taste) on the other hand? Journalists have grappled with that one as long as I can remember. However now, the debate gets tougher because it has become clear that the ISIS-ISIL execution videos are propaganda, designed to shock Western sensitivities? I cannot agree with observers who take a black-and-white view to the question: and black and white could be defined as ‘to-show-the-video or not-to-show-the-video. And what of the families of the executed hostages: what do we owe them? A newsroom editor cannot say ‘It is our duty to keep the public informed – but only when it isn’t sickening …’. In local news, editors and journalists sometimes grapple with how to report suicides – or even apparent suicides. There is a view that ISIS-ISIL wins every time an execution video is shown at length CNN - with its faults – appears to be trying to deal with this by reducing the amount of execution videos that it shows. This is a judgement call sometimes made at a senior level and sometimes at the newsroom level and there is, in the end, probably no solution that will satisfy most of the people most of the time. In the heat of the moment, newsies sometimes just go with that indefinable characteristic that rarely comes up in conversation: conscience.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:34:36 +0000
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