2004-04-22 22:04:35.970268+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
Woman fired by military contractor for published photograph of flag-draped U.S. coffins. I'm passing no judgement on her actions and not changing my position on the U.S. involvement in Iraq, but the image on the cover of the Seattle Times deserves a look. If only because someone thought that such images are bad policy.
[ related topics: Politics Photography Current Events War Seattle ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2004-04-22 22:08:08.026503+00 by: Dan Lyke
Story at the Seattle Times, PDF of the front page, Mike Fancher's editor's notes on the issue, and the original story.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-04-23 12:29:10.091066+00 by: polly
my brother is a blackhawk pilot with the 101st at ft. campbell. he just got back from iraq, after being there for a year, and "they" are fixing to send him back for 6 months. the 2 blackhawks that collided a few months ago were from his unit while he was over there. he took pictures of the memorial service that was held over there before the bodies were sent back to the states. he HAD permission.
i personally would NOT want to see his coffin on the front page of a newspaper before i got to see the coffin. i don't want him or anyone else in iraq. he is more important to me alive than dead. each time he is sent back to iraq increases his chances of being killed. it takes the family at least 8-10 hours AFTER hearing about a blackhawk down to know whether or not it was him. this sucks.
i do believe in the freedom of speech, but i also feel that the press should respect the dead and the families involved. the public knows what is going on in iraq and all those 3rd country worlds. we watch CNN, we see it.
hell, during the gulf war, the public knew what was happening thanks to CNN before the president even knew.
the use of the photo should have had permission from the families before it was published.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-04-23 13:10:42.623457+00 by: polly
my school "geek", medically retired from air force special ops, shares his opinion. he sez that the public needs to see these pictures to know what is going on over there. the public doesn't know who those coffins belong to, but the public needs to know that americans are getting killed. our people are dying, iraq is shooting back, they want us to leave, we are the ones dying. he compares this to vietnam. the public didn't say anything about vietnam until the pictures started showing up in the news. THEN the public started protesting. he says that iraq is the same scenario. iraqies are fanatics, they don't want us there, they are going to do everything they can to get rid of us. the geek says let the UN deal with it. all the other countries are pulling out, we need to also.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-04-23 17:45:02.154042+00 by: Shawn
I'll admit that I might feel different if I had a family member who was in one of those coffins, or even might be (I have friends and acquaintances over there, including my old National Guard unit), but I'd like to think I wouldn't. I think the public should see these things. I don't think the general public knows what's really going on over there - I don't think most people in the U.S. have any concept of the realities of war.
The photographer broke established rules and policies, but I disagree with those policies.
