Fox News is inadvertently serving as a propaganda platform for ISIS
The 22-minute video shows Muadh al-Kasasbeh being set on fire and burned alive in a cage as ISIS militants look on. The only warning about what is to come is a full caps "EXTREMELY GRAPHIC VIDEO" label in bright red.
The video was promptly deleted from YouTube, and news organizations like CNN have refused to broadcast the video or even show graphic screenshots from it. The Daily Mail, the New York Daily News and the New York Post all ran still photos from the video, according to the Guardian.
The video is now being widely shared by ISIS proponents via the Fox News site. "Whoever is looking for the al-Furqan version [of the video], here it is and it cannot be deleted because it is on an American network," tweeted one IS supporter. al-Furqan is the Islamic State's media arm.
Fox has defended its decision to show the video, writing in a statement that "the decision to give readers of FoxNews.com the option to see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS outweighed legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video."
"The question is whether people have a right to see it and understand that there are actually people-although I have a difficult time calling them people-that would do this," Fox News executive editor John Moody said in an interview with TVNewser. "You can't hide information anymore. Someone who wants to see this will find it," he added.
Others do not agree. "You can say a man was put in a cage and he was set on fire and he was burned alive. That is horrific, hideous, and completely explained what happened," Executive V.P. of CNN International Tony Maddox told CNN Today. "So you don't need to show the video in order to explain that or any part of the narrative."
[h/t Capital New York]