After Fox News made the first move on Tuesday, conservative websites stumbled over each other to post propaganda footage by the Islamic State terror group showing a hostage set on fire and burned alive.
On Wednesday, Fox News’ executive vice president and executive editor summed up its decision to publish the video of Muath Al-Kaseasbeh’s murder as letting viewers “see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS.”
Similarly, when Fox anchor Bret Baier broadcasted a still image from the video on Tuesday, he told viewers the channel was airing the graphic footage “to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism and to label it as such.”
(Notably, Fox News made the clip embeddable, so that anyone could post it to their own page. Most copies of the video that have appeared on conservative sites and blogs are embeds of the Fox video.)
After initially deciding not to publish the video out of “respect for the victim,” conservative mogul Glenn Beck changed his mind and posted it on his site The Blaze.
Beck justified his turnaround through similar reasoning to Fox’s statements, framing it as an unflinching and sobering act of courage.
“After looking at the images again, I believe it is important for the world to see them,” he wrote. “We have been lured into a poppy field where we have fallen fast asleep as grave danger quickly approaches.”
Breitbart.com issued a similar disclaimer.
“Though controversial, it is the belief of senior management at Breitbart News that the horror of ISIS should be visible for national decision makers, the constituents who elect them, and the Americans who may be called upon to fight them,” the site said.
“This doesn’t terrify me. It makes me angry. It makes me want to see every single one of these malignant cowards dead,” wrote Daily Caller blogger Sean Medlock, alias Jim Treacher. His post was titled “If You Don’t Want To Watch This Video Of ISIS Burning A Man Alive, Then Don’t.”
Medlock wrote that he rejected the analysis of terrorism experts and media critics saying that circulating Islamic State propaganda is precisely what the radical group intended.
The site The Right Scoop posted a shorter version of the video, leaving out the introduction and jumping straight to the execution.
“WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT’S PROBABLY THE WORST THING YOU’VE EVER SEEN. IT’S HORRIFYING,” the site read.
