Major Media Not Publishing Execution of Jordanian Pilot

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) uploaded a video of an execution of Jordanian military pilot of a U.S. led coalition Moath al-Kasasbeh. Media outlets faced a difficult decision about how to contend with the video. Though it is impossible to ignore the video ISIS released, it is ethically challenging to publish a video of an execution.

Various media outlets handled the situation differently. A Fox News anchor spent 10 minutes describing in his own words what was captured on the video. The BBC showed photos of protests in Jordan. CNN just showed a photo from the executed pilot’s documents. CBS made a video from photos, not showing the actual footage.

Internet outlets were divided into two groups: first group did not illustrate the story and showed protests in Jordan (Time, Business Insider, NBC News, The Independent, Mirrow), the second group published photos from the video (Dailysignal, Vocativ (in Twitter), New York Times, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Jewish Press).

Despite the differences in presenting the information, all the media outlets came to same conclusion – not to show the execution.

In an earlier edition, Bird In Flight asked professional photojournalists about how death should be captured and described in media.