The Whole Story, Please

Time' s upcoming cover shows Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghan girl whose nose and ears were cut off by the Taliban, with the headline, "What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan?" Its editor explains that running the photo is not meant either to support or oppose the U.S. war effort "but to illuminate what is actually happening on the ground." This is all well and good - the plight of Afghan women is a real concern - but the headline and tenor of the article paint a simplistic version of a complex picture that omits a host of other things "actually happening on the ground." The role of journalism, it's true, is to tell the story, however ugly. But the whole story, please.

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