UTEP Professor: Bin Laden Photo Not Necessary
UTEP’s longest serving communications professor told ABC-7 Wednesday she doesn’t deem the photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse necessary from a journalistic standpoint.
“The talk about proving that Osama bin Laden is dead by showing a gaping hole in his forehead, I don’t believe that,” said Dr. Barthy Byrd.
Dr. Byrd also said President Barack Obama shouldn’t cater to conspiracy theorists.
“You know, there are people who don’t believe we landed on the moon. It doesn’t matter what you show them,” she said.
The President said Wednesday he’s decided not to release bin Laden’s death photos because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks for the United States.
Some family members of those who died in the 9/11 terror attacks thought it important to document bin Laden’s death, as did some skeptics in the Arab world who doubted his demise in the absence of convincing evidence. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement that Obama’s decision was a mistake.
“The whole purpose of sending our soldiers into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable proof of bin Laden’s death,” Graham said. “I know bin Laden is dead. But the best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world.”
But many other lawmakers and others expressed concerns that the photographic images could be seen as a “trophy” that would inflame U.S. critics and make it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their jobs.
