Fox News is defending its decision to post the entire video of the Jordanian pilot who was burned alive by the Islamic State (ISIS) on its website, after facing intense scrutiny for the decision.
Fox News says that the decision was made "in the interest of showing the shocking depths of ISIS' depravity."
Fox News' executive vice president and executive editor John Moody came to the defense of the decision Wednesday. The video was only shown in its entirety on the website FoxNews.com, not on the Fox News Channel.
"After careful consideration, we decided that giving readers of FoxNews.com the option to see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS outweighed the legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video," Moody said.
"Online users can choose to view or not view this disturbing content," he added.
Even though the entire video was not aired on the Fox News Channel, a photograph of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh while succumbing to the flames was shown on "Special Report with Bret Baier," after Baier gave a warning to viewers.
"The images are brutal, they are graphic, they are upsetting," the Fox News anchor said. "You may want to turn away. You may want to have the children leave the room, right now.
"But the reason we are showing you this is to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism and to label it as such. We feel you need to see it, so we will put up one of these images on your screen right now," he explained.
The decision was widely criticized for promoting what some said was merely ISIS propaganda.
The Guardian cited terrorism expert Malcolm Nance, who said that showing the burning was promoting "exactly what ISIS wants to propagate," which is essentially "to spread terror."
Rick Nelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies took it a step further, saying that Fox News is "literally — working for al-Qaida and ISIS' media arm."
CNN executive Tony Maddox said that "nothing can be gained" by showing the video or any of the images of al-Kaseasbeh's death.
While CNN has shown still photos from other ISIS videos and executions, Maddox said that "this most recent one, which is truly horrific, there is no editorial justification for showing it at all."
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