Who stands to gain the most from the release of the 'prisoner abuse' photos?

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Hello All, To understand the motivation of any deliberate action, it becomes necessary to ask the tough, poignant questions. Specifically: 1. What is the possible benefit? 2. Who stands to gain the most by the action? In the case of these 'prisoner abuse' photos, long sought by the ACLU and the American Left, the most notable beneficiary is, I believe, none other than the left dominated main stream media. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many dollars is that same picture worth??? How many USA print media organizations are now facing bankruptcy, have already filed bankruptcy, or have fallen as a result of financial insolvency? Disappearing ad revenues as well as plummeting circulation nightmares are the pressing, 'life or death' challenges for much of the main stream media, though most especially the print media. "...the circulation numbers do pose a threat to the industry, which has long relied on them to demonstrate the value of print advertising. As those numbers continue to fall -- circulation peaked at about 65 million in the mid-1980s -- and as papers shift more resources to the Web, many are finding the old economics don't always apply. As a result, many newspapers are laying off staff and the industry is seeing a wave of consolidation and ownership change." http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86nFkz5Ulg0S1U/Newspapers-Suffer-as-Web-Use-Grows.xhtml?wlc=1240760200 Let's look at it from another angle: Political contributions from the newspaper - book - magazine industries: Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans 2008 $17,603,637 (81%) $4,045,074 (19%) 2006 $6,062,970 (70%) $2,394,040 (28%) 2004 $11,732,120 (75%) $3,768,695 (24%) 2002 $10,505,022 (80%) $2,469,592 (19%) 2000 $6,426,125 (58%) $4,529,689 (41%) http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=C1100 The Communication Workers of America (the media union) is ranked #12 on the "Top All-time Donors Summary List for 1989 - 2008", having given 99% of its $26,239,906 to Democrat politicos, and less than 1% to Republican politicos. http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?order=A Of course, the picture wouldn't be complete without a glimpse into the lobbying efforts of the newspaper-book-magazine industry, would it? Below is a list of lobbying groups, and the numbers of lobbying incidences filed by them in just the year 2008. Notice any pattern in the frequency of adjunct supporters of the newspaper-book-magazine industries lobbying our Congressional Representatives for favors and/or funding??? Rank: Lobbying Organization #of lobbying incident reports filed for 2008 #1 American Assn of Advertising Agencies - 15 #2 Magazine Publishers of America - 12 #3 National Assn of Broadcasters - 12 #4 American Advertising Federation - 11 #7 Alliance for American Advertising - 8 #9 Assn of National Advertisers - 8 #13 Newspaper Assn of America - 8 http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?year=2008&lname=Advertising&id= Finally, we have all seen or heard rumblings of the Democratic proposal to 'bail out' the dying newspaper industry, right? Below is the final column from the Obama appointee Rosa Brooks, formerly an LA Times columnist. [i]"Influential Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks has hung up her journalistic hat and joined the Obama administration, but not before penning a public proposal calling for some radical ideas to help bail out the failing news industry.... Years of foolish policies have left us with a choice: We can bail out journalism, using tax dollars and granting licenses in ways that encourage robust and independent reporting and commentary, or we can watch, wringing our hands, as more and more top journalists are laid off," she wrote in her parting column on April 9."[/i] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/obama-appointee-suggests-radical-plan-newspaper-bailout/ Thursday, April 16, 2009 ___________________________________________________________________________________ [b]My questions to you: 1. Should these photos be released? Why or why not? 2. Should the dying print media industry be 'bailed out' with taxpayer money? 3. Can you think of any industry or group of industries that stands to gain more from the release of these photos than the print media?[/b] ©Ladyluna21042 2009