As a world society, we will never advance beyond armed conflict if we shield the population from the real image of war- and that is death.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Some pretty radical video clips have been posted on YouTube since the company began posting videos online a few years ago.
In spite of some of those spicy videos that have made the cut, we have always known that the organization had standards, and I certainly don't object to that. But I do take exception to their removing one of my Iraq War reports last summer that showed a dead terrorist. I think YouTube needs a serious reality check.
YouTube bans pornographic or sexually explicit video showing frontal nudity of women. It is OK to show topless men. The site is known for plenty of bare behinds; apparently that part is OK.
YouTube does not allow graphic violence. That's really nice of them, but the world is full of violence and isolating people from it doesn't help the victims very much. Of course every type of foul and disgusting thing involving horror and murder movies is just fine, but a dose of reality is apparently too much.
YouTube does not allow "disturbing or disgusting video footage" and I'm guessing this is where my report qualifies, if you will. YouTube Community Guidelines state, "YouTube is not a shock site. Don't post gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies or similar things intended to shock or disgust."
Not a shock site? I think a whole lot of people and statistics would disagree with that.
I see and have seen plenty of dead bodies on YouTube, but I was threatened in a message from the company, which indicated that we could face having our account closed for "future violations".
So we will be looking around for a new place to post credible news stories. The main reason we often use YouTube is because more people have the ability to see our videos if they are prominent on the video sites as well as Salem-News.com.
Other rules are simple and logical. You can not violate copyright laws, videos can't contain hate speech, "including verbal attacks based on gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or nationality." Makes sense to me.
Another rule involves not revealing other users' personal information.
The part about "disturbing or disgusting" seems fair, but the question is where do they draw the line?
My video report filed from Baghdad, Iraq on August 28th, 2008, featured Iraqi Special Forces soldiers in Baghdad who had just killed a man they described as a terrorist.
The video included cell phone footage of the dead suspected terrorist in Dora, laid across the hood of an Iraqi Army HUMVEE. Was it disturbing? Of course it was, but it wasn't that bad and there was a disclaimer so people knew ahead of time that the video contained graphic footage.
Along with the dead body was the jubilation of the Iraqi Special Forces soldiers celebrating their victory of that day with traditional song and dance.
War is a disgusting, dirty bloody and smelly subject, and sugar coating YouTube and blocking people from seeing death in this venue isn't doing the world any favors.
Are Civil War Photographer Matthew Brady's images of dead Confederate and Union troops rotting and bloated on the battlefield also banned? How about WWII? Vietnam?
Think about it; in order to even see this particular video that I produced, someone would have to search for Baghdad, Iraq. If anyone does that and thinks they are going to see a Guns and Roses Show, they aren't living on the same planet that I reside on. Baghdad is a city that has been devastated by the U.S. military and nobody will ever even know the real death toll. But as much as that may be the case, there are still soldiers working with ours, like the men in the IA Special Forces that I met that day, who are sincerely interested in ridding Iraq of people who are willing to plant bombs that kill soldiers and civilians.
At that time last summer Dora was a real problem area and there was plenty of combat going on between insurgents, U.S. and Iraqi forces. These guys were just sharing what their day had entailed. Soldiers kill people. YouTube apparently attempts to sterilize the online video community and I admit I am shocked over it. I of course recognize that we are talking about a business and businesses make their own rules, but this strikes me as a departure from the feeling that YouTube has developed among its users, like myself.
The article that accompanied the video report is available and we will work on getting the associated video report posted to another site. (see: One Day in Baghdad: Part 1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
YouTube Pulls Salem-News.com Video Showing Dead Terrorist in IraqSalem-News.com