By James L. Lambert
May 7, 2004

(AgapePress) - Since the release of the pictures showing the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners featured on 60 Minutes II, we have been reminded of this catastrophe every day by our friends in the media.

Certainly the actions of a small group of service people were abhorrent. What was done in this Iraqi prison does not represent the U.S. armed forces in general. However, you would not know this from the reaction from the media. They are obsessed with the prisoners' abuse, repeatedly showing the photos, describing the occurrences in detail, and questioning every one in sight. Make no mistake, the actions of these few military personnel are inexcusable and should be dealt with severely. Yet, there is an obvious double-standard in the journalistic community -- and we should be reminded about it as well.

While it is natural for the media to question this prison abuse, we are warned by the media of their reluctance to show the mutilated bodies of the four American civilian contractors who were murdered outside of Fallujah, Iraq. Not only were these Americans brutally burned and murdered, some of their bodies were dragged through the streets by a group of chanting thugs and then hung on poles.

Yet those same media groups were quite anxious to show us the images of the Iraqi prisoners who were forced into terribly compromising positions while under the watch of American troops. Yet they were reluctant to distribute, and in some cases would not show us, the graphic images of those Americans who were brutally killed and paraded around in Fallujah. Why?

September 11 was a terrible day in American history! America absorbed the worst single-day mass murder of its citizens in history, but already many liberals in the media don't want to remind us with these "old" images. On the first and second anniversaries of 9-11, television media were reluctant for us "to relive" these images. Some, like CNN, would not re-air some of the graphic scenes from this important episode in our history, even though many of their friends in the media (CBS, NBC, ABC) were just miles from the epicenter of this disaster. Even some in the European press still believe that 9-11 was a "Zionist" fabrication that was used to sway sympathy toward America and against Arab countries. Not only do they want to keep these vivid images out of the American consciousness, they would like to soften the truth for public consumption.

Words can be a powerful thing. Remember this passage when you were growing up? "The pen is mightier than the sword." This is especially true with words used by the media. These days we don't want to offend people by saying "murderers"; instead, we'll replace it with "freedom fighters." "Killers" is too harsh of a word; we'll replace it with "sympathizers."

The irony of much of this twisted reporting is that the media did not even want to show one of its own who had been brutally murdered by Islamic extremists. Remember Daniel Pearl? As a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl was seeking an exclusive interview in Pakistan. He happened to be captured by some terrorist group. Pearl was brutally murdered and beheaded. Pictures of his head were released by the murderous thugs to the Arab media.

But here in the U.S., our media friends were again reluctant to show these pictures. Many media groups would not! Why? If anything, these pictures would clearly show what these terrorists are all about. Perhaps this would be too much for the American public to handle? But these same media groups were quite eager for us to see the images of the abused Iraqi prisoners.

What is sad about all this is that if anything, this recent effort by the media will endanger lives in the Middle East. President Bush attempted to relay the message that these actions "by the very few" does not reflect our servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq and is "not the America that I know."

This is the message that the media needs to convey -- instead of its own spin.