Posted on 03/19/2008 11:28:53 AM PDT by Rufus2007
Some have accused the media of trying to undermine the war effort by swaying public opinion with images of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, but the visuals are justified and important, according to Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley.
Curley was the keynote speaker of the Sunshine Week dinner at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 18. Curley defended the media's use of the controversial photographs as "moving and very unifying."
"Well, we've all tried and we've all been turned down, and I think your question is another reminder we should keep trying," Curley said when asked about the importance of those photographs. "We should never stop trying. I find those pictures very moving and very unifying. All of us really, really appreciate the sacrifices that are being made."
One of those photos with flag-draped coffins was used in a video advertisement that was posted on the site of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee website leading up to the 2006 midterm Congressional elections.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Extract from the earlier linked article about the Dem video:
“The video in question is currently posted at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee website, and shows a variety of images including a satellite picture of Hurricane Katrina approaching New Orleans, the devastation caused by the hurricane, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, war pictures from Iraq, and at one point, flag-draped coffins presumably of American soldiers.”
Unfortunately, the link to the video showing the ad no longer works, but it’s pretty obvious what kind of video it was.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with showing a picture of a flag-draped coffin of one of our dead troops in a respectful way—at a church service, at a burial, for instance. That way peoplel can honor and pray for the dead.
But it’s another matter to use flag draped coffins as commodities, for political purposes, as items in a political bashing, in such a way as to demean and dishonor the dead.
That’s the AP way.
Didn’t this come up about two years ago? I don’t think that was done in “good taste” as a some sort of show of honor, but more like to sensationalize the cost of war unfortunately.
I don’t know, but I think it’s probably talking about those pictures of flag draped coffins in transit back to the states, photographed in a warehouse of some kind.
It was in reaction to that beknighted misuse of a photo that the military tried to clamp down on further press exploitation of coffins.
As I said, it was not exactly respectful of the dead. And I don’t think that “freedom of the press” includes an obligation on the government’s part to help them dishonor and exploit our dead.
I will not continue at this point to go mad at the "PC rules" that our government shackles our fighting soldiers with.
A pox on all those in our government who withold our full force on the enemy.
FMCDH(BITS)
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