Robert Gates protests AP decision as 'appalling'

Politico ^ | September 4, 2009 | Mike Allen

[OldCorps]

...

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father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.

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.”

The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, according to The AP.

Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer. “Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed."

“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.”

The photo, first transmitted Thursday morning and repeated Friday morning, carries the warning, “EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT.”....

Cont.

[OldCorps]

Shame on the AP. They have no sense of decency.

[brytlea]

What an awful thing for the family.

[Slings and Arrows]

Hey, if you want to sabotage a war effort you have to brutalize a few families.

[stinkerpot65]

Liberals are scum.

[BienHoa69-70 RVN]

If Gates had any balls he would immediately order all AP associated personnel out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Because he doesn’t, he won’t.

[Atom Smasher]

This is what has become of our brave men & women...they are now being put on display! What is most stomach-wrenching is that it is for the sole purpose of politics & greed!

My prayers go out to the Lance Corporal’s family, & may he Rest in Peace. I would like his family to know that our hearts break with theirs, at what the AP has done...

[ozzymandus]

Once again, AP proves itself to be filled with anti-American scum.

[Tublecane]

“In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed.”

I don’t mean to disrespect greater men than I, but what kind of idiotic, pussyfooted statement is this? Why would the AP care if you patted the media on the back?

What’s the matter with bureaucrats? Why do they lose all contact with common sense?

[BienHoa69-70 RVN]

Because they are inoculated against common sense when they set foot in DC.

[OldCorps]

I is really sad to speak this truth:

Soldiers and Marines deployed in war zones should know that the mainstream reporters (non Fox news) moving alongside them are merely parasites. These reporters might speak the same language, and come from the same culture, and pretend to be the soldier's friend as long as the soldier is protecting them from the enemy.

The minute these liberal scum reporters are away from danger and the soldier who defended them, they once again spout the usual liberal clap trap and look down their nose at the very soldiers who ensured their survival.

Its exploitation pure and simple.

[Voter62vb]

This somewhat appears to be a less than genuine protest from an administration that campaigned on allowing photographing caskets, is actively going after the CIA for their parts in interigating potential suicide bombers, and continually obfuscates, two-faces, and apologizes in a way that makes one feel further offended.

Freedom of the press, man.

Now, if only we could hear a member of this administration protest the release of John Kerry’s or Obama’s records, then I would reconsider.

They have a lock on the info they choose to lock down.

[oldbrowser]

But at the same time showing photos of the twin towers being destroyed is not allowed out of respect for the families of the americans killed in that attack.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Shame on Robert Gates continuing to work for this defeatist President.

[piytar]

The AP published this photo specifically because it would demoralize the family. The purpose was to demoralize all troops’ families and thereby the troops.

They are the enemy. Period.

[LifePath]

Is that the picture in question?

[kcvl]

Associated Press correspondent Alfred de Montesquiou, AP photographer Julie Jacobson and AP Television News cameraman Ken Teh.

[OldCorps]

No, I just got it off of photobucket.

[kcvl]

Associated Press photographer Julie Jacobson, center, standing with unidentified members of the Afghan National Army

[LifePath]

Thanks. I found the AP article where they said “after a period of reflection” they decided to publish the photo, even though the father was against it. If AP can do so even when the young Marine’s father asks them not to, you know where their bastard hearts really are. They are the enemy.