05 April 2005

Old Media credibility watch

[source, source]

I looked at the twenty [Pulitzer Prize] photographs and broke them into groups on the basis of content. Here are my results:

  • U.S. troops injured, dead, or mourning: 3 (2, 3, 11)
  • Iraqi civillians harmed by the war: 7 (4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 18)
  • Insurgents looking determined or deadly: 3 (6, 15, 20)
  • US troops looking overwhelmed or uncertain: 3 (7, 12, 14)
  • US troops controlling Iraqi prisoners: 2 (16, 17)
  • Iraqis celebrating attacks on US forces: 2 (1, 19)

Equally telling is what the photos don’t show:

  • US forces looking heroic: 0
  • US forces helping Iraqi civillians: 0
  • Iraqis expressing support for US forces: 0
  • Iraqis expressing opposition to insurgents: 0

I suppose in the vein of the arguments that the reason there’s no good news reported about Iraq is that there is no good news, we’ll be told that there are no photographs of the omitted types, nor such events to photograph in the first place.

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