Editorial — How far should media go? The answer isn’t difficult

WEDNESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — There was a rather silly discussion Tuesday night among a panel of journalists on The National.

Usually, panel discussions on the CBC evening newscast are insightful and interesting but this one was an irrelevant exercise in journalistic navel gazing. The topic was ISIS and whether the terrorists have manipulated Western media into giving it publicity.

Some of the discussion centered on the beheadings of Western captives, and whether the media should show more graphic detail. One panelist seemed to question the mainstream media’s reluctance to show the whole thing, since it’s available on the Internet.

Then there was a lot of discussion about mainstream media’s role in spreading the message of ISIS and so on. The obvious thing missing from the discussion was the fact that mainstream media don’t show the graphic details of beheadings because mainstream media still have a sense of community standards, and community standards oppose the depiction of gratuitous news footage of a disturbing nature.

Mainstream media are careful about showing photos or video of dead bodies, especially close to home, and are sensitive to privacy issues. The slaughter of innocents by terrorists is an extension of that. Such acts can be indicated in a reserved manner.

So, regardless of whatever role the media may be playing in disseminating the manifesto of the terrorists, distasteful details of the beheading of ISIS victims aren’t something audiences want to watch.