Bill Kristol, Pete Hamill Fight Over Images Of War Dead At IFC Media Panel (VIDEO)

IFC hosted a panel on the state of the news media Tuesday afternoon at New York's Michael's restaurant. The panel, moderated by Arianna Huffington, featured Bill Kristol (Weekly Standard/New York Times), Gideon Yago (IFC Media Project), Christopher Buckley (Daily Beast, formerly of National Review), and Pete Hamill (New York Daily News).

The afternoon's most memorable moment came when Kristol and Hamill went head-to-head over images of dead soldiers in Iraq. In a heated exchange, Hamill argued that there is "no sense of what reality is on the ground by editing out corpses," while an incensed Kristol said that was "nonsense" and that Americans are smart enough to know what goes on in war without seeing "brains in the road." (WATCH THE EXCHANGE BELOW, CLIP 2)

Read more about the panel at Portfolio, the New York Observer, Silicon Alley Insider, and Editor & Publisher, or watch video highlights below.

1. Gideon Yago and Bill Kristol argue about the coverage of the Iraq War. Yago argued that it is incredibly difficult to find actual images of the way the war is conducted on the Internet, while Kristol claimed the claim was "ridiculous." Kristol based his argument on the claim that the coverage of the debate over the Iraq War and over the surge were more well-informed than the debates over Vietnam in the 1960s, but Yago fought back, saying that the message is manipulated when Americans cannot actually see images of what war looks like.

2. Pete Hamill fights with Kristol over showing images of dead soldiers in Iraq.

"There's no sense of what reality is on the ground by editing out corpses, for example," Hamill said. "Nobody died, there was no bloodshed."
"Oh, nonsense," Kristol shot back, and the two heated up in crosstalk. "You think Americans are such idiots, Americans wouldn't understand that people die in a war unless you show brains in the road?" Kristol asked.
"They think it's a movie," Hamill said. "Let them see a coffin."

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3. Arianna Huffington explains the difference between the mainstream media's Attention Deficit Disorder and the online media's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

4. Christopher Buckley decries the way "the term 'breaking news' has become a little bit degraded." He describes how, growing up, "Breaking News" on TV meant that "a President had been assassinated or Fidel Castro had put missiles in Cuba. Now, it seems every time I walk through an airport...I look up, and CNN says 'Breaking News.' And what it now means is that a truck with flammable something has overturned."

The IFC Media Project is a six-part documentary examining the influences shapin today's news media. Episode one premiered Tuesday night on IFC. Watch a clip below:

Comments

[whit4brains]

I saw the first of this series Tuesday night and recommend it. I'm looking forward to watching the whole series.

I personally think we should see all the coffins that come back. It seems disrespectful to me the way the media doesn't discuss the fallen soldiers from this war. I found this list the other day and was blown away by it. So tragic. I really hope we get out of this occupation soon. It's heartbreaking realizing how many people have lost their lives...

http://icasualties.org/oif/USDeaths.aspx

[ManassasMan]

Has Kristol ever worn a uniform other than a Cub Scouts' one ?

[smag]

Have you?

[shockmagog]

Make up your mind, Kristol. Either Americans are i.d.i.o.t.s or they're not.

[macohmz]

Krystol helped found PNAC. I don't think any of those who signed that document ever saw with their eyes their consequences of war.

[Senzasord]

No Bill, you are an idiot ,and you definitely need to see brains and bloody body parts all over the road, not to mention being obliged to attend one military funeral a day for the next year, so that you can learn just what war is really about.

[Halsey]

I truly believe that Dan Rather reporting from the GROUND in Viet Nam helped end that "war" earlier..We SAW dead children, soldiers, farmers....and that vido of the Viet Nam Soldier putting a bullet inside a V. C. prisoner's head... SHOW us What we are DOING!

[frost12]

FOR THE FIRST TIME, KRISTOL IS FORTHRIGHT STATING, "AMERICANS ARE IDIOTS."

[AdamAnt12]

I remember. This is exactly why we lost in Viet Nam...

[larmarch5]

Remember how Boooosh wanted to "take out" Al Jazeera because of its news coverage. Google "Bush, Iraq, targeted journalists." For the fundies, their wishes justify any means. They are sociopaths.

[OldSkooler]

MY EYES!!!! MY EYES!!!!!!!

Kristol pulls his pud there at about 17-18 seconds in!!! Just as he starts to go off on Hamill!!!!

I'm gonna hurl!!!

Jeeze, could you guys please pixel that out???

MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!

[SouthpawSass]

ROFLMAO... I had to look at it again. I think I need me some Pepto...

[Aramingo]

If you don't have the guts to view the consequences of your ideas, perhaps you should reconsider your ideas.

[ddemos]

Let's not forget, this was the man that Sarah Palin sought out to introduce her to the DC scene. He was her biggest supporter as VP candidate...need we say more?

[peewee42]

Yes,...ddemos,..you might have added that Kristal -rather than be a Palin supporter- should go back to what his -previous- best mission in life has been, sofar:.Go back to being an AThletic Supporter" again..

[AdamAnt12]

Oh, just like Keith Obberman!!!

[JonRaymond]

Americans are smart enough? They elected Bush into office and ignored his crimes for eight years. How smart can they be?

[peewee42]

JonRaymond, I take exception to your use of "elected"....NO one has had the "cojones" to put up the money to confirm, but I believe the elctions were stolen in FLorida 2000, and in Ohio in 2004.
If I had the $$$ I would have put it behind a Full, independent investigation..People don't know the HALF of what kind of evil Rove and his goons have pulled over on this great country.

[larry278]

Elected with stolen votes courtesy of the Supremes & penny pinching Dems. BTW, agree or not, anybody who voted for W either time has a terminal case of the stupids. Anybody who voted for W twice should be encouraged to get a lobomotomy (sp) when BHO & the 111th Congress gives the USA universal medical care.

[bobbysgurl]

That's the cover up. Everyone using Florida to say that the election was stolen. I did not vote for Bush either time. So, when someone comments on Americans not being smart enough, I just say, "I didn't vote for Bush."

[laborgrunt]

I agree with this. Once I watched a Middle East News story and they were covering the fighting in Gaza, and they showed a baby with its brains blown out. It was the most disgusting and sad thing I had ever seen, but you know what it made me that much more against senseless wars.
I think they need to show dead American bodies on the streets they need to show more blood and guts and ppl will not be running to war as easily.

[AdamAnt12]

No one is "for" war, no one "wants' war...and I, for one, do NOT want to see brains sprayed everywhere....I live through this war one day at a time...My son is on his 3rd tour of duty, In Afghanistan now, the first 2 in Irag. No need for THIS American family to see the "war" any closer than we already do everyday.

[Tulka2]

"It's a matter of taste, I suppose". -Bill Kristol

Drop him about twenty miles outside the green zone. I sincerely hope he makes it those twenty miles, but i am betting he would have a different view of tasteful. That boy needs his bubble burst.

[jeffp26]

Does Kristol have any relatives risking their lives in Iraq for absolutely nothing?

I doubt it.

[VOTER]

I, also, doubt he has spent time visiting with our wounded veterans.

[klandish]

War is an abstraction for Kristol but there's lots or concrete $$$$ to be made. He doesn't mind looking at that. Real tasteful Bill.

[AdamAnt12]

I take great exception to what your comment is implying jeffp26. My son is in Afghanistan as we speak, he is a US Marine, and HE KNOWS exactly what he is there to do.

[walk0nwalls]

""They think it's a movie," Hamill said. "Let them see a coffin.""

My thoughts exactly.