JEFF JARVIS REVIEWS TED KOPPEL:
To put this another way: The device presents those listed as victims. That is how the device has been used in print with the dead in Vietnam, from AIDS, from urban crime, 9/11 and other acts of terrorism, and so on. Victims. And where there are victims, there is a wrong done to them — by man or nature.
But these are not victims. They are soldiers who went to do a job and did so valiently. But that is not how I saw them presented last night on Nightline. I did not see a tribute. I saw victims. And that is the problem I have with using that device now.
UPDATE:” Jay Rosen says, of course, Koppel was making a political statement — and so what?
I agree with that… except.
Koppel says he wasn’t making a political statement. That’s what’s dishonest about it. He was making a political statement and that would be OK if he’d level with us about it.
He’s trying to be “political” and “objective” at the same time and that doesn’t work. It’s an on-off switch and he’s trying to put the switch in the middle. And it’s arcing.
One of Jeff Goldstein’s commenters observes:
Watched it. Thought it was sad, moving, tasteful.
This is bias I began with, but the program left me with a desire, more visceral than before, to make sure our soldiers didn’t die for nothing, to finish the job.
What Lincoln said at Gettysburg is still true, and that is the lesson I hope our leaders on both sides take from seeing the faces of the fallen.
There are some other interesting comments.