Posted on 09/04/2009 10:47:11 AM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”
The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.
Gates: “I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Thomas Curley is AP’s president and chief executive officer. contact at info@ap.org
I saw this on Drudge and still haven’t quit shaking. I’ve drafted something to AP three times and still having a hard time with “reasonable and articulate expression of my anger and disgust”. I keep straying into a complete rant.
Time to rethink this policy. All the indignation and emails isn't going to change a thing after the fact. Kick them off the battlefield.
Time to rethink this policy. All the indignation and emails isn't going to change a thing after the fact. Kick them off the battlefield.
From the article: The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.”
No, publishing it demonstrates the complete and utter lack of respect for the soldier and his family’s wishes. Appalling indeed!
The marines should have used his camera for target practice and maybe given him a few rifle butts.
AP=al qaeda press.
LLS
We are in a battle for our country’s soul. Its dying by a thousand slices.
Unfortunately, decency is no longer common.
Unfortunately, decency is no longer common.
Gates opened the door for this kind of bs when he supported Obama allowing reporters access to returning KIA.
As for the AP, they suck. Nothing new there.
Sorry for the dupe... :-/
Such things are, of course, possible.
No doubt they'd think it tasteless to do, and they'd certainly be aghast at the idea that such a thing had been arranged for.
Barring that, maybe someone could go dig up an already dead AP staffer's grave and take some pictures. Publish 'em on the net. Maybe prop up the corpse for a better display.
It's like thinking of things that can be done with Westboro Church's ghoul team.
In the manner the current POS President is fighting the war, tying the hands of our Military behind its back, I am about to join Cindy Sheehan.
Our warriors need a better fighting chance than the one they are currently subjected to, Viet Nam all over again.
Either fight a war to win or not at all, our soldiers deserve better, our CIA deserves better, our nation deserves better.
Better yet. Lets publish the douche bag that produced the photo. Ya, lets plaster it all over the nation. The traiter. The guy who is just in it for the money. Ya, where is his picture? I want a hundred. What is his name? Where does he live? Where is he now?
Aren’t these the same people who won’t publish images of the victims of 9/11 anymore?
How come we can see images of dying U.S. marines but not Obama eating a cheeseburger or having a smoke?
While this is absolutely tasteless and cruel what makes the administration think it should be able to sway their AP apparatchik not to publish the photos. They slammed the Bush administration for trying to influence the publishing of questionable material from the war. Now that it makes them look bad they have changed their tune; not wanting the photo to be published has nothing to do with what is right.
I mean, just what is it going to take to instruct AP in what is tolerable behavior.
You said it. I agree. Common sense is no longer common, either.
Appalling.
I’m finding freedom of the press to be less and less important as time passes. We do not have a legitimate press any more, we have a propaganda machine for the democratic national committee.
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