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Benedict Arnold

A famous photo.

There is a famous photo of an American Vietnam POW seated, forearm resting on his thighs and his hand giving the photographer the finger.  In print and reel the gesture is blocked out.  Yet it was entirely ok to publish photos of maimed and dead soldiers.  Does this strike you a bizarre, even obscene?

Posted - April 20, 2017
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Responses


  • Obscene?   No not at all.   Showing and documenting the gross horrors of war is necessary and needed.  I argue there should more of it in full graphic detail in all media to force the public to see it.  Let them be disgusted and outraged.  That's a good thing. Let them see the truth so we can make better decisions on when it's actually worth it.

    Bizarre?  Slightly but only in the broader sense that some people are still taken back by the word F(_)CK and think vulgar language is a big deal in any way.
      April 20, 2017 9:09 PM MDT
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  • 19937
    It is an obscene gesture, but taken in the context of the photo, perhaps it was an apt one.  I disagree with you on showing more graphic pictures of war.  At first there's shock, but if too many such photos are shown, ne becomes inured to them and they become normalized.  I see it myself when I read the newspaper - this one shot that one, a child got killed in the crossfire of a gang shooting, people died when they were shot in a drive-by.  After a while, I don't even bother to read the article - I just turn the page.
      April 20, 2017 10:32 PM MDT
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  • Well t be honest showing a gang shooting victim isn't as important as showing war footage.

    I disagree though about war footage being normalized.   Only if it is propagandized into something to be proud of.
      April 21, 2017 6:04 AM MDT
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  • 19937
    I understand but wonder whether constant visuals of violence in any form tends to make us less concerned about it.  I don't know.  Perhaps all the coverage of the Vietnam War was what coalesced people into all those protests and eventually ended the war.  The down side of that was the way the troops were spit on and treated when they came home. 
      April 21, 2017 11:49 AM MDT
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  • 3191
    "Showing and documenting the gross horrors of war is necessary and needed."

    Agreed.  I think that is particularly true here in the US as there has never been a war on our soil in any of our lifetimes.  With the exception of our troops, we have not seen war up close and personal.  Many Americans also naively believe that everything we do in other countries is done out of benevolence, and is therefore justified.  

    I posted this the other day, but it seems pertinent to this conversation, so I am reposting it.

      April 20, 2017 10:48 PM MDT
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  • You have misunderstood my meaning.  What I suggest is that is bizarre that photos of maimed and dead soldiers and civilians are deemed acceptable but a photo of a POW giving his captors and tortures is deemed to need editing.  Which photo is the more ghastly?
      April 20, 2017 10:59 PM MDT
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  • No i do understand that.   Ghastly isn't the issue or the basis for the editing choice.  It's about one being a documentation of the realities of war and what is going on in the world and the other isn't.   No I think it's absurd people consider  curse words and the gesture worthy of being offended, but that's any society that has those stupid things. Yet they do.   The fact remains showing the tragedy of war serves an important journalistic function but the soldier showing the bird doesn't.
      April 21, 2017 6:02 AM MDT
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  • 53502
    I hope this doesn't violate the rules here.

    I believe it was North Korea, not Vietnam. 


    ~
      April 21, 2017 5:53 AM MDT
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  • 44601
    Crew members of the USS Pueblo. I remember it  from when it happened.
      April 21, 2017 8:20 AM MDT
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