Because they're proof that the Internet is still, on whole, uncensorable:
They die over and over on continuous loop, the journalist's throat slashed
again and again, the bank robber blown up by the bomb locked to his body
time after time. The graphic video and still images of dead and dying people that mainstream
news organizations choose not to display inevitably find their way to the
Internet, where they can't be killed. Some can be legally challenged, but
even if a site is shut down, the image rarely goes away.And there's a vigorous argument over whether instant access to such images
is good or bad: Are they examples of stomach-turning excess or honest
depictions of a disturbing world? There's little disagreement, however, over the Internet's role in eroding
the mainstream media's reign as gatekeeper — the media's decisions to
withhold images from their viewers no longer mean viewers won't see those
images
