spinoff

Dead children – you saw them. They were being brought out from under the rubble of a destroyed building in Qana, south Lebanon; grey dolls in the arms of rescue workers.                 

 

Israel was receiving incoming rocket fire from the area and so it targetted Qana. Two day-old footage was produced as evidence of this, showing rockets being fired from a building.             

 

Whether the building in the film was the same one consequently destroyed was not clear. Neither was it clear why Israel had waited two days before flattening it. This, however, is not the point.           

 

The point is the bodies – dead ones being picked from the rubble, and the fact that they were shown on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 news. Why is it that we, in the UK, are allowed to see bodies of dead Lebanese, but not of our own dead soldiers in Iraq?           

 

The answer given to this is that we would be too upset to see dead British troops. It would be a PR disaster and would ruin morale back home. These points carry weight.                

 

Then why is it that we are also not allowed to see dead US troops on television? They are not our countrymen; why is there a reticence to show any coalition dead on our screens? And for that matter, why is it that the most iconic moment in TV history – the destruction of the twin towers – has also disappeared from our screens? Can you remember the last time it was shown?              

 

Somewhere media coverage is being doctored. We are not shown “our” dead, but are allowed to see “theirs”. We are not allowed to see our moments of fallibility, but we are allowed to see theirs. It cannot be suggested that we are weak, mortal or anything other than dominant, while they can be all of those things.          

 

There is no other conclusion to draw when one considers the blanket uniform guideline being followed. No UK news channel shows any coalition dead. All UK news channels show Lebanese dead. This is not co-incidence.           

 

To conclude, therefore: a question. I do not intend to try answering it, though. I will leave it hanging in the air for your consideration, and anyone who would proffer an answer should please do so below. It is very simple.         

 

Why can we see their dead, but not our own? Is it because they matter less?     

 

Yours etc.,

 

Spinoff.