As horrendous as the Iraq prison abuse story is, this Washington Times editorial has a point: The press can’t seem to let the story go.
Actually, I’m not sure that’s quite the right way to characterize the situation, but it’s close. The editorial notes that lately the press has been heavily emphasizing the court martials, and it seems to me that this is an important part of the story that needs to be covered. Not only do the court martials constitute a legitimately newsworthy development in the story, they also provide an education for the public (and the world) who is responsible for the abuse. It isn’t the U.S. government as a whole. It isn’t Donald Rumsfeld. It’s the people who committed the abuse and those (if any) among their superiors who ordered or encouraged it. Showing that justice is done in their cases is something that needs to be emphasized by the press.
That being said, there is still a lot of room for criticism of the press. They aren’t simply following a story with this one. They’re relishing a chance to engage in over-the-top sensationalism and grab ratings so they can make more money. They’re releasing images and stories with shaky pedigrees (that in some cases have proven to be outright fakes), timed in a way calculated to provide the maximum ratings punch.
And they’re doing so in a way that harms the public good. However bad what happened in Abu Ghraib prison was–and it was very bad indeed–it it did not suck all of the other important news stories out of the world. There are larger stories with more important, more long-lasting consequences that need to be covered, and concupiscently zeroing in on this one story and hyping it for every ounce of scandal it will provide simply does not serve the common good. It does not present a balanced picture of the world or of reality.
What we have here is something we often have: A case of the press using sensationalism to promote its own good (ratings) and its own agenda (anti-Bush) at the expense of the common good.
This isn’t a case of the public’s right to know. As the Washington Times editorial points out, the public has already learned the facts of the case. What is driving the press now is a sick desire to milk this scandal for everything it’s got, with no sense of serving the greater public good.
