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Images of Lynch, England reflect U.S. opinion of war
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-28 08:55
The vividly contrasting images of American soldiers Jessica Lynch and Lynndie
England, one portrayed as a heroic victim and the other as depraved villain,
symbolize the souring of U.S. opinion of the Iraq war, experts say.
The vividly
contrasting images of American soldiers Jessica Lynch(Top R) and Lynndie
England (Bottom L), one portrayed as a heroic victim and the other as
depraved villain, symbolize the souring of U.S. opinion of the Iraq war,
experts say. [Reuters] |
Between the time
Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital in April 2003 and England was revealed
posing in pictures of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib this spring, public opinion has
traveled a parallel path from hopeful to skeptical over the American role in
Iraq, they say.
"You couldn't pick a better example to illustrate what a difference a year
makes," said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at New
York's Syracuse University.
Images of the two women -- both petite, youthful and from hard-scrabble
Southern backgrounds -- tell larger stories about the events in Iraq, he said.
"The Jessica Lynch story wasn't just about Jessica Lynch. It was about a
whole attitude and a whole sense of optimism. Then Lynndie England carries a
much more ominous and arch sort of thing," said Thompson. "If a novelist were
writing this, they couldn't have done much better than these as metaphors."
As the images have degenerated from the U.S. government-touted tale of
Lynch's rescue to gruesome scenes of sexual humiliation, recent polls indicate
just how far the American public's backing of the war has declined.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 57 percent of respondents are angry
about the situation in Iraq, up by 27 percent from March 2003. Those describing
themselves as hopeful dropped to 62 percent from 80 percent and those using the
term "proud" fell to 41 percent from 53 percent.
"How the war has been going is being portrayed particularly by those two
women," said Jack Lule, professor of journalism at Lehigh University in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "As we've come to question the war and question what it
means for our own values ... we have an image of a woman who raises those very
questions.
"It's amazing how much symbolism is packed into those photos," he said.
American soldier
Lynndie England seen pointing alongside hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners,
at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad in Iraq, in this undated photo.
[Reuters] |
What images the media choose to
portray the story relies heavily on those polls, said Tom Rosenstiel, director
of Washington's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
"Which image they select is usually influenced by their sense of public
attitudes, so polls tend to have a very substantial impact on framing the way
journalists think," Rosenstiel said.
An unflattering picture of a candidate may get no coverage if he is ahead but
be widespread if he is losing, he said. Thus, he said, declining support for the
war is reflected in what we see.
"You see things in an event that you might not have seen before, when you
thought the president could do no wrong," he said. "It's almost human nature."
In practice, images of Lynch and England get greater "play" when conditions
are right, said Holly Stuart Hughes, editor of Photo District News, a trade
magazine for photographers.
Pfc. Jessica Lynch receives the Purple Heart
from Lt Gen James B. Peake, US Army surgeon general, during a ceremony at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, July 21, 2003. Lynch also
received the Bronze Star and the Prisoner of War
Medal.[Reuters] | So, when Saddam Hussein's statue was being pulled down,
editors wanted pictures of liberation rather than images of wounded and dead
civilians, she said.
But with the situation more difficult, "photo editors and their bosses are
asking for pictures of how hard it is to maintain the peace," she said.
The images don't merely illustrate but intensify opinion, said Lule, noting
that opposition to the Vietnam war grew as memorable pictures were seared on the
public psyche. Few can forget the picture of a running naked girl burned by
napalm or the shooting of a Vietcong man by a Saigon police chief.
"These pictures are surfacing because people are questioning the war," Lule
said of the prison abuse. "I don't think the media ever gets too far ahead of
public opinion."
And the lasting image, with all its political implications, said Hughes, is
likely to be that of Lynndie's cocky smirk, with a cigarette in her mouth and
her booted foot resting on the body of a naked prisoner.
"The photographs with the most political impact are not the set-up photo ops.
It's always in the unexpected moment," she said. "Jessica Lynch was kind of
manufactured for the press, and its impact has completely faded in light of
these uncontrolled, unpredicted photos."
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