San Francisco Chronicle Applauds Scoop For Publishing War Photographs
Editorial By Selwyn Manning – Scoop Deputy Editor
One of the USA’s largest daily newspapers has published links to www.scoop.co.nz’s un-sanitised and uncensored images of this US-UK invasion of Iraq.
The San Francisco Chronicle, audited as North California’s largest newspaper, published a front-page pointer to its
article titled: "Who Cares About Dead Iraqis? - Body counts, Rummy's plan, and the grisly stuff they don't want you to
see. Mark Morford."
The column hight-lights how the US public is being kept from seeing the killing of innocents, of children, of mothers,
the elderly: those killed by the hands of Uncle Sam and his British friends. The publication links to Scoop twice in the
column’s crescendo.
Columnist Mark Morford writes: “No, it's not easy to find the truth, to see the real numbers or to see the true pictures of war. But there are some
honest reports trickling out. Ghastly scenes of a brutalized people. A handful of reporters actually reporting on
something other than troop movements and food supplies. But you have to really look…
“And there are pictures. True images of war available. You need a steel stomach and hardened nerves to view them, but
they are, in a way, required viewing, something almost everyone should see, especially those who wave flags and think we
are so righteous and good and helpful.
“You won't see them on CNN, or on GOP-lickin' Fox News, or even on this Web site. It's just too much. But if you want to
know what Bush's little war is really inflicting, you might want to take a look. Here's just one site [links to http://scoop.co.nz], from New Zealand, that's collected a number of such grisly images from foreign presses. Also includes photos of dead
U.S. soldiers. Warning: Graphic content. Warning: Perspective altering. Warning: Breakfast ruining.”
[Column links to: scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=warimages ]
Morford continues: “Oh sure they're all brutalized. Or dying. Or mutilated. Or burned. Or bleeding. Or emotionally devastated at the loss
of their entire families to a U.S. attack.
“Sure they're all, you know, dead. But hey, at least they're liberated. All hail.” The column concludes.
This is significant. Scoop can confirm it is providing graphic material, at unprecedented rates, to an influential and
sizable audience in the USA. Scoop’s US traffic surged throughout Saturday April 5 [NZ time] with around 850,000 hits
for the 24 hours, or more relevant around 8000 pages viewed per hour.
In an editorial published on March 27, Scoop said: “The founding purpose of information sharing is to empower
individuals to make informed choices. If publishing these images causes those who would otherwise send more to their
deaths or support the killing of innocents to consider the true consequence of their decisions, then publishing is
justified.”
This continues to be our purpose in publishing this horror, uncensored and un-sanitised.
As our editorial stated: “To sanitise the reality of warfare is abhorrent to those serving the public interest. To
censor images of capture, of death, as a consequence of war, is wrong. If Scoop were to do so, it would be subscribing
to the glitzy rah rah top-gun Hollywood-façade-style of reportage that the mainstream United States based media has
become obsessed with.”
May this ‘informed’ USA audience feel compelled to be uncompromisingly active in arresting its country’s aggression,
that so deceitfully occurs in the name of peace, and in reality are acts that are loathed by a clear majority of this
world's citizens.
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For Reference: The San Francisco Chronicle column. http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/ The Chronicle’s front-page: http://sfgate.com/chronicle/ - north California's largest newspaper. Further Reference: Scoop War Images Feature Page - http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=warimages Scoop’s editorial justifying publishing these horrific images - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00261.htm
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