3. After the “Brangelina” roller coaster of 2005 and the frenzy of rumor and innuendo it sparked, hadn’t we heard enough about the private lives of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? The answer, it would seem, was no. On May 27, 2006, the day of their baby Shiloh’s birth, the media went into paparazzi overdrive to obtain photos of the “most beautiful baby in the world.” They weren’t as interested, however, in another set of photos released that day. These photos depicted US Marines killing Iraqi civilians ‘execution-style.’ The unearthed photographs, taken by a Marine intelligence team, convinced military investigators that a single unit had killed as many as 24 unarmed Iraqis in an insurgent stronghold after a roadside bomb had killed an American in November of 2005. While this shocking story did eventually break the surface of mainstream coverage, it never attained the depth or breadth of coverage so eagerly showered on Brad and Angelina.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, “Photos Indicate Civilians Slain Execution-Style: An official involved in an investigation of Camp Pendleton Marines’ actions in an Iraqi town cites ‘a total breakdown in morality,’” May 27, 2006; Perry, Tony and Barnes, Julian E. Lasseter, Tom. Knight Ridder Newswire “Iranian-Backed Militia Groups Take Control of Much of Southern Iraq,”May 27, 2006. **Wikipedia used of the date of birth.

Labels: news, pop culture

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