Colbert Slams News Organizations for Showing Exploding Istanbul Terrorist

One of the duties of the modern late-night comedy host has become the delivery of commentary after the latest mass casualty event, and this week, it was Stephen Colbert‘s turn to take up the grim task. On Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host interrupted the opening to a comedy bit so that he could address Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey. After offering solemn wishes and prayers for the victims and their families, Colbert tacked on a bit of media criticism as well:

Is it really necessary to show us photographs or rolling video of a terrorist exploding? That really seems like advertising for someone’s cause in a way that they may like. I don’t think we need to see that.

With all due respect to Mr. Colbert, it is not the job of news organizations to censor information based on the sensibilities of potential terrorists. There are other reasons to object to the showing of this video that have some validity, such as the normal broadcast standards or the consistency of such displays or the manner in which they are presented, but the idea that the news should be changed to affect the thinking of terrorists is absurd. If anything, the unseen suicide bomber is accorded the most glorious end the imagination can fill in. The reality of being blown to bits can hardly be worse, and might even deter one or two of these people. Show it in Super HD, I say.

But since we’re on the subject of how to handle terrorism in the news, maybe if you’re a late-night host, you could block off your solemn, well-intentioned commentary into a standalone segment, instead of making it the intro to a bit. I don’t know how that makes terrorists feel, but it’s jarring to the rest of us.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.