[jlarocco]

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?

[jtchang]

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).

[jlarocco]

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.

[runn1ng]

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.

[jtchang]

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.

[sthrs]

You can describe what the images contained without showing them...

[jtchang]

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.