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Media Want More Photos of Dead GIs
NewsMax ^ | May 23, 2005 | Carl Limbacher

Posted on 05/23/2005 10:21:27 AM PDT by Kaslin

American photojournalists and their editors are frustrated that they can't show more photos of U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq, saying that the nation isn't getting an accurate picture of the horrors of war.

In a comprehensive report on Saturday, the Los Angeles Times noted:

"A review of six prominent U.S. newspapers and the nation's two most popular newsmagazines during a recent six-month period found almost no pictures from the war zone of Americans killed in action."

The paper explained:

"Many photographers and editors believe they are delivering Americans an incomplete portrait of the violence that has killed 1,797 U.S. service members and their Western allies and wounded 12,516 Americans."

During World War II, the Roosevelt administration strictly prohibited news outlets from printing photos of dead U.S. soldiers because of the obvious blow it would be to American morale. And the press willingly complied.

The same sensibility largely prevailed during Korea, Vietnam and the First Gulf War.

But with many in today's media opposed to the Iraq war, some say it's time to change the rules.

"There can be horrible images, but war is horrible and we need to understand that," veteran war photographer Chris Hondros told the Times. "I think if we are going to start a war, we ought to be willing to show the consequences of that war."

Pim Van Hemmen, assistant managing editor for photography at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., agreed, telling the Times:

"Writing in a headline that 1,500 Americans have died doesn't give you nearly the impact of showing one serviceman who is dead."

By censoring the photos of GI's as they lay dying, Van Hemmen said, "We in the news business are not doing a very good job of showing our readers what has really happened over there."

Steve Stroud, deputy director of photography at the Los Angeles Times, also thinks the public needs to see more photos of dead American soldiers.

"I feel we still aren't seeing the kind of pictures we need to see to tell the American people about this war and the costs of the war," he explained.

Michele McNally, New York Times director of photography, concurred, observing: "War kills men, women and children, and we would be remiss if we couldn't in some way show that this is what happens in war . . . It's our responsibility to bear witness to these events."

Media support for showing more American bloodshed comes despite the risk that soldiers' families may consider the display a horrible violation of privacy.

Deirdre Sargent, whose husband was deployed to Iraq, recently complained to editors of the News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., after the paper printed a photo of a dying GI that she said left her "shaking and in tears for hours."

"It was tacky, unprofessional and completely unnecessary," Sargent said.

Executive Editor Dave Zeeck told the Times that he tried to address the complaints in an essay published on Page 2 of the main news section. He explained to readers that he believed the picture, taken by John Moore of the Associated Press, epitomized the sacrifice of the American soldier.

"We not only have the right, but the responsibility to run such photos," Zeeck told the Times.

MSNBC.com posted the same photo to their website, prompting complaints from the dying soldier's family.

"At first we thought it was a really iconic photo of the terrible violence going on in Iraq," MSNBC.com editor in chief Dean Wright told the Times.

But when it turned out the soldier could be identified, Wright took the photo down, saying, "We thought it was too horrific, because it was more personalized then."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: California; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: agitprop; antiamerican; antiamericanism; antipatriot; bullzogby; buzzards; deathlist; ifitbleedsitleads; iraq; iraqwar; laslimes; lat; mediabias; no911photos; propaganda; proterrorist; saddamites; unamerican; waronterror; zogbyism
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1 posted on 05/23/2005 10:21:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Nah. What we need is more pictures of dead MSM journalists. :-)


2 posted on 05/23/2005 10:23:21 AM PDT by hiredhand (My kitty disappeared. NOT the rifle!)
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To: hiredhand
Nah. What we need is more pictures of dead MSM journalists

I second that. They want to turn public opinion against the war and the Bush White House. They have been trying for the longest time.

3 posted on 05/23/2005 10:25:36 AM PDT by areafiftyone (Politicians Are Like Diapers, Both Need To Be Changed Often And For The Same Reason!)
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To: Kaslin

How about showing some pictures of the people leaping from the burning towers on 9/11/2001.

Maybe some pictures of the wreckage of the plane in Pennsylvania.

And how about some pictures of the wreckage at the Pentagon and some of the burn victims being pulled from the rubble.

Let's see some pictures of the firemen and policemen pulling their brothers out of the rubble of the WTC.

Why don't they want to show those pictures anymore?


4 posted on 05/23/2005 10:25:51 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: hiredhand

Photos of dead American soldiers is something the Arab Muslim nations could really get behind and tolerate, unlike Quran "desecration" (real or imagined), the real "crime" against humaity.


5 posted on 05/23/2005 10:26:54 AM PDT by corlorde (Without the home of the brave, there would be no land of the free)
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To: areafiftyone

I'll third, fourth and fifth it, if it helps any.


6 posted on 05/23/2005 10:27:19 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (Islam, the religion of violence; democrats, lovers of Islam and abortion.)
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To: Kaslin

To show dead GI`s would only serve to embolden Al-Qaeda, something I`m sure papers like the LA Times can`t wait to do. I`d rather see Al Qaeda dead, and make no doubt, our men and women who gave their lives would feel the same, but you know what happens if we showed those photos? Liberals would scream bloody hell. We can`t even show pictures of them wearing underwear on their heads.


7 posted on 05/23/2005 10:28:32 AM PDT by EdHallick
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To: Kaslin

I'd prefer more pictures of dead journalists, myself. Scumbags!


8 posted on 05/23/2005 10:29:47 AM PDT by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
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To: ariamne; jan in Colorado; Former Dodger; Fred Nerks; Cornpone; expatguy; appalachian_dweller; ...

More MSM betrayal and dishonesty ping!

A.A.C.

Isn't it time to add the left-wing media to the "Axis of Evil" list on an official basis?!


9 posted on 05/23/2005 10:31:47 AM PDT by AmericanArchConservative (Armour on, Lances high, Swords out, Bows drawn, Shields front ... Eagles UP!)
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To: Kaslin

For a long time I have thought these people were sick in the head, now I know it.


10 posted on 05/23/2005 10:32:42 AM PDT by ANGGAPO
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To: Kaslin

Let's compromise, one picture of a dead journalist for every picture of a dead soldier.


11 posted on 05/23/2005 10:34:02 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul (Support Our Troops, Spit On A Liberal Reporter)
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To: AmericanArchConservative

Thanks for the ping. Jeepers...


12 posted on 05/23/2005 10:35:19 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: hiredhand
I agree, lets show the photos of the journalist killed in Iraq, splattered with blood, guts hanging out, lungs coming out of their mouths, brains sprayed across the pavement and body parts laying about with face showing so that the family of the reporters and photographers get an accurate picture of the sacrifices that they've had to make in this conflict.

Let's start with some AP reporters and photogs, then some Reuters and their photogs.

Maybe some stateside journalists would like photos of their relatives that have been killed in car wrecks posted on the net so that the public can get a better understanding of the dangers of SUV's and the highway sytem.

In fact lets have the editor of the magazines that post these photos agree that when they die, we can see the photos of them with cr@p in their pants, tongue hanging out and blue skin color as they lay dead.

It will only give us a more accurate view of the death process.......

Let me see do I f'ing hate the press..... uh yep....I think that's an affirmative. Do I think libs are lower than whale cr#p..... another "yes".

13 posted on 05/23/2005 10:36:31 AM PDT by Dick Vomer (liberals suck......... but it depends on what your definition of the word "suck" is.)
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To: Kaslin

Funny how they don't want more pictures of 9/11 though. And won't run the ones they have.


14 posted on 05/23/2005 10:36:42 AM PDT by Peach
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To: Kaslin
Yet the MSM media negated many pictures of the successful elections conducted in Afghanistan last year and in Iraq this past January.

Yet the MSM media doesn't set forth the citizens of these two countries welcoming the American armed serves into their cities/regions.

Yet the MSM refuses to show the goodwill being generated by the new found freedoms of these citizens.

Yet the MSM doesn't illustrate the horrors inflected upon the citizens of these two countries by the 'foreign' outsiders, the Muslims of Saudi, Syria, Jordan, Iran origin.

15 posted on 05/23/2005 10:37:01 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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To: 68 grunt
"I'd prefer more pictures of dead journalists, myself. Scumbags!"

How about 2 pictures? #1 Headless body, #2 Head alone.

They are more concerned with showing Americans dead (we knew they were not pulling for the Americans didn't we) than the headless bodys left by the sub-human trash known as mudslimes

16 posted on 05/23/2005 10:37:44 AM PDT by Wurlitzer (I have the biggest organ in my town {;o))
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To: Dick Vomer
...and the thing is that I do believe that enough MSM journalists have been killed in the conflict to do EXACTLY as you suggest!

I couldn't agree with you more!
17 posted on 05/23/2005 10:38:34 AM PDT by hiredhand (My kitty disappeared. NOT the rifle!)
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To: VRWCmember

The MSM will never show those


18 posted on 05/23/2005 10:42:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Picture of Saddam in his tighty-whitey's got lots of attention.


19 posted on 05/23/2005 10:42:35 AM PDT by CheneyChick
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To: areafiftyone

Ditto


20 posted on 05/23/2005 10:43:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
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