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Gruesome Iraq Images Could Shake U.S. Opinion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Graphic images of Americans being mutilated in Iraq could powerfully shake U.S. public support for the occupation and may play into the presidential campaign, pollsters and media analysts said on Thursday.

After initially hesitating, U.S. TV networks began showing the images of cheering Iraqis in Falluja celebrating the murders of four American security contractors whose bodies were burned, mutilated and strung up for public view.

Newspapers carried front-page pictures showing charred bodies surrounded by exulting mobs.

"These pictures speak volumes. It's just what the Bush administration did not want. Americans are seen here as real victims, not just statistics," said pollster John Zogby. ...

...The Falluja images spread quickly on the Internet on Wednesday. Even as some U.S. networks tried to tone them down, they were available in full and graphic detail on some Web Internet sites.

Barbie Zelizer, of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania, who has studied the impact of media images, said such events could crystallize public opinion that was already moving in a certain direction rather than dramatically changing it.

"What is striking is that all of the sudden, the headlines are proclaiming that this war is horrific. It's been horrific all along. The only thing that changed was that a cameraman happened to be on the spot this time and captured the pictures," she said. ...

...The administration has made strenuous efforts to keep the news from Iraq as upbeat as possible. It has banned TV crews from filming at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of dead U.S. servicemen arrive back to the country. President Bush has not attended any funerals of personnel killed in Iraq....