Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jtchang 4181 days ago
It's definitely their decision but here is my thought:

A news story just broke in which people were killed because of certain images. Is it not good journalism to show the images that caused the attack?
2 comments
runn1ng 4181 days ago
It's the same as with not showing photos from ISIS with the heads being cut off.

Or not showing naked leaked photos of Jennifer Lawrence.

link
runn1ng 4181 days ago
And while I am at it

Copyright is directly against "absolute freedom of speech"

I can't go and print the latest Game of Thrones book and claim "freedom of speech". We do have actual laws that prevent us to print something.

link
jlarocco 4181 days ago
No, I don't think it would be "good journalism," it'd be "sensationalist journalism."

Nobody gets upset when they replace the word "nigger" with the phrase "the 'N' word", so why get upset over this?

link
jtchang 4181 days ago
I think it is the situation:

"He was shot because he called him the N word" vs "He was shot because he published these images".

I understand the former pretty easily but the latter I'd want to know what the images contained (especially from a news organization).

link
jlarocco 4181 days ago
Every news site explains they were images ridiculing Muhammad. If that's not enough, you can Google "Charlie Hebdo Muhammad".

They don't publish sample pictures alongside stories of child porn arrests, either. They self censor things like this all the time.

link
runn1ng 4181 days ago
As I said before

Do you think they should show Jennifer Lawrence leaked photos just because it's part of the news story about iCloud breach? I don't think so.

link
jtchang 4181 days ago
That's different. The leaked photos aren't central to the story. It's like a piece of art causing a huge amount of controversy. The media outlets certainly don't condone the images but I think it is critical to the story.
link
sthrs 4181 days ago
You can describe what the images contained without showing them...
link
jtchang 4181 days ago
Yes but the images are really relevant to this news story and I think showing them is probably the best way to convey the content.

I don't agree with the images (and I think they are in bad taste) but I'd expect a news organization to report it impartially.

link