by Sydney H. Schanberg


Village Voice

01/25/05

In the new America, images rule. Positive images. That's because reality is annoying. So in Washington now, the images are of Oz. President Bush, in his invisible bell jar, has just been inaugurated for the second time -- $40 million worth of fat-cat parties and banquets and balls. In Baghdad, there are explosions -- not celebratory thank-you fireworks, just explosions. And then bodies in the streets. But in the new America, we're not supposed to publish pictures of the bodies of the American dead in the streets -- only the Iraqis. The president and his image makers say that showing American corpses is disrespectful. He has barred even the taking of photos of American coffins -- too upsetting. Reality only gets in the way...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0504,schanberg,60421,6.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp