kind of family pressure they're going to be facing from loved ones who say, "Don't go to Iraq." Susan.[1]
Furthermore, every time a victim was shown begging for their life and wearing the orange jumpsuit, a subtle legitimizing effect took place. Who wears these outfits? Detainees. And who takes detainees? Those with some authority and legitimacy. After all, we hold detainees, we do not kidnap hostages. Repetitively showing these hostages dressed this way, and furthermore usually going out of their way to draw attention to the way they were dressed, begging for their lives, but not showing the ultimate denouement captures a sense of shame and guilt, rather than a sense of anger and blame.
Given this real impact, consider Hoffman's argument about the danger of press coverage that over-emphasizes the personal, the individual anguish of specific families in the midst of a hostage crisis.[2] In past crises, he argues, this has had the effect (sometimes intentional) of creating almost unbearable pressure on the government to violate long-standing U.S. policy and negotiate with terrorists. Because, after all, is not the most important thing to do whatever is necessary to bring our people home now, and end these families' concrete and visible suffering, and damn the consequences (for example, the possibility that more—and abstract—families might suffer in the future)?
When a video is released of Bigley pleading for his life, it provides an opportunity for precisely the type of situation Hoffman writes about: the pressure is put squarely on the government to void its policy of not negotiating with terrorists. How can they not move heaven and earth to bring their man home and end this specific family's anguish?
- ↑ Barry Peterson, "American Civilian Beheaded in Baghdad," CBS Morning News, September 21, 2004, available from Lexis-Nexis Academic, web.lexis- nexis.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/universe/document?_m=be341fb253ab40b1855876329a7ec114&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkVA&_md5=31b04d97d94f039026024e6c5db81b5e.
- ↑ Unfortunately, in the superb updating of Hoffman's book, much of the case study of the media coverage of TWA 847 has fallen away, presumably because the media environment is so different today. (After all, that hijacking took place in a world dominated by three broadcast networks, no cable, no Internet.) All the same, it is worth tracking down the 1998 edition of the book for the chapter, "Terrorism, the Media, and Public Opinion,", pp. 131–155, for a great deal of it remains relevant.
