For weeks the Bush administration kept the report on abuses in Iraqi prisons from the American people by pressuring CBS not to air the photographs in its possession. Similarly, it was only through the use of the Freedom of Information Act that the dramatic photographs of the coffins of US soldiers coming home were finally made public.
疟俘事件在一处发生后，很容易扩散到其它地区。一连几个星期，布什政府通过给CBS施加压力，阻止它将掌握的照片公之于众，使美国公众不能了解伊拉克监狱疟俘事件的真相。与此相似，只有适用了《信息自由法》，装有美国士兵遗体的棺木运抵国内的戏剧性照片才被公之于众。