Los Angeles Times
"War, the Small Screen, and the Big Picture
TV cameras are drawn to human drama, for good and bad.
By Frida Ghitis, FRIDA GHITIS, a former CNN producer/correspondent, is the author of 'The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television.'
August 2, 2006
WHEN THE latest Middle East war erupted, I was in Istanbul. I watched images of the conflict from Turkey and, more recently, from the Netherlands, experiencing the anxiety and worry that has gripped anyone paying attention to this excruciating drama. The soul-searing images, radiating most recently from Qana, Lebanon, tell a story of fire, tears, rage and devastation. Like the lens that closes in on its subject, the images blur everything behind them, commanding attention, urging our minds to complete the picture.
The tears and the rage and the destruction are absolutely real. By confronting us with the ugliness of war, the images force us to keep human suffering in the forefront — exactly where it should be. And yet television images of suffering pack so much power that they overwhelm every other kind of information. They can cripple our ability to understand what is really happening."
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