Control Room

For anouther class i watched a documentary called "Control Room" about the war in Iraq and the US's more "conservative" media coverage v. the more explicit coverage of the war from Al-Jezeera the main Arab news source. It was interesting to see how and what images and topics are censored by different governments and bodies of people. In context to this class, it got me thinking in terms of the banned literature we read, and the content that labels it so.  One thing i noticed is that the American media was very apprehensive to air violent and morbid graphic photos or videos, especially depicting tragedies amongst our soldiers, where as Al-Jezeera had almost no limits to the depiction of violence on either side. As a whole in terms of loosening standards in America we have become more tolerant to sexual images and innuendo in the media, but it feels like we have perhaps digressed from the early 1960's when the Vietnam War was aired on T.V. The changes are interesting.Are we saying that we are ok with the promotion of   illicit sexuality, but not ok with the realities of war? Or,  maybe the government just realized a nation is less willing to back a war when they are able to watch their children die fighting it on TV...