CNN, and other lamestream sources, has been complaining that U.S. Military policy prevents news organizations from morbidly televising the reception of coffins of war dead arriving at Dover (a policy begun in the Clinton Administration). So CNN deliberately, willfully, deceptively and maliciously used the recent image they did have of astromauts, so as to better demoralize the country and bring down Bush’s numbers. And CNN wonders why they are being trounced?
Casualties of war: How much should the public see?
By Wolf Blitzer
CNN
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 Posted: 6:02 PM EST (2302 GMT)
From CNN's Wolf Blitzer in Washington:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In March and April, when major combat was underway in Iraq, people around the world had extraordinary access to the fighting -- thanks to the journalists embedded with U.S. and coalition forces.
This was in marked contrast to the first Gulf War in 1991 when reporters were barred from going to the front lines.
But what hasn't changed over the past dozen years is the Pentagon's refusal to permit camera crews to record the return of those troops killed in action.
That's why you're not seeing the nearly daily arrival of coffins in the United States. Critics say the Pentagon fears the pictures would demoralize the American public and weaken support for the war.
"The Pentagon is basically suppressing images, I think, fearful of the negative impact -- again the drumbeat of recurring bodies -- and it is part of the credibility gap this administration faces. I think it really comes down to that," says Newsweek Senior Editor Michael Hirsh.
Just before the first Gulf War, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell issued an order prohibiting any news media coverage of the coffins returning to the Dover, Delaware, Air Force Base. Since 1955, that base has been the U.S. military's largest mortuary and the first stop for the caskets coming back from abroad.
Who can forget the return of the 241 bodies killed in the 1983 terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut?
But those pictures went away -- except on those rare occasions when the White House wanted the American public to see the coffins.
That was the case in 1996 following the plane crash that killed then Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 32 members of his delegation in Croatia.
In November 2000, at the tail end of the Clinton administration, the Pentagon expanded that Dover ban to include all U.S. military bases. That ban has remained in effect since then.
What the Pentagon does allow is media coverage of individual graveside services.
Victoria Clarke was, until recently, the Pentagon spokeswoman. She disagrees with the ban.
Clark says, "I happen to believe that people should be allowed to cover those events. I think if you are going to sign pieces of paper saying that young people are going to put their lives at risk, that young people are going to die for important causes, then we should be willing to let people see what happens and the kinds of terrible things that can happen in conflict. I think that is being very straight with the American people."
But the ban remains in effect.