who's protecting whom and why?

Why is the above photo of Phan Thị Kim Phúc burning from napalm, running down a street in Vietnam, one of the few photos we see in Western media nowadays when we talk about the tragedy, or glory, of war? Who decided that we needed to be protected from images such as this? If modern-day images such as Nick Út's classic photo were shown, then wouldn't our outrage go some way towards being able to protect the children that such atrocities are inflicted upon? Or at least to protect the ones who are threatened by such atrocities. Many countries, including my own, inflict harm on others, and the less we see the results of these actions the more likely harm is to occur, and to be regarded as acceptable, or uncontrollable - the collateral damage that goes hand in hand with 'just' and 'good' battles.

By the way, the television media in the United States never made mention of this Pulitzer Award for David Barstow.

Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.

See Glen Greenwald for a thorough examination.