Media refuses to print grisly photos

This post first appeared on All Spin Zone.

During the Vietnam war, there were some key photojournalism moments that changed the course of the war by influencing public opinion. Here are three of them:

To some extent, the same held true in Iraq with the Abu Ghraib photos. The torture and suffering that America witnessed in those images were in stark contrast to what most of us feel are our national values and what we stand for as a country. Attitudes toward the war started changing when these photos were published. Yes, it is somewhat disconcerting that, despite ACLU lawsuits and a judge's ruling to release additional images and video footage from Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon continues to stonewall and hoard some of the most graphic photos and videos. Still, that's the government holding back the images, and (to some extent) I can at least understand the regime's resistance to releasing more damning evidence that only it posseses.

But what if a media outlet had...