I was surprised to see a clip on the BBC news the other evening purporting to show Iranian armed men hunting for an American serviceman whose plane had apparently been shot down in their country. I found it unsettling that the BBC chose to air this footage. I wondered if they would have done the same if the technology in World War Two had allowed them to get hold of some footage of Wehrmacht or SS officers setting out to hunt down Allied airmen shot down in enemy territory.
In Children of Men, PD James points out that “you don't need to manipulate unwelcome news; just don't show it.” Most evenings, the BBC follows this advice very closely. Huge events it doesn’t care for are ignored or get the briefest of coverage, while tabloid nonsense pads out the half hour. To me that makes the decsion to show viewers footage that I suspect comes direct from the Iranian regime’s propaganda machine particularly mystifying.
What do others think?
Since the beginning of military aviation, air crews have been shot down over hostile territory, and then generally captured. Their treatment has varied according to the values of the captors, and in some cases according to the the captors' estimates of the other side's power to retaliate. The police and the Home Guard certainly rounded up quite a few downed Luftwaffe personnel. I doubt anyone bothered to shoot film of the searches or captures, in the British Isles or on the Continent, since film was expensive and the business too routine.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be wisely skirting the ethical question i am bothered by.
DeleteI should say that as propaganda it is self-annulling. The men shown are armed and dressed for hunting small animals, not for standing any chance against the force the US was prepared to bring to rescue its pilot. I have no particular view on the airing of anyone's propaganda, provided always that one grasps its context.
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