"Defense" Secretary Gates Angry Media Not Censored to Government Tastes

[clb09]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090904/pl_politico/26759


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.”

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090904/capt.baed03297d424d5e972b9428219e1ddf.afghanistan_ death_of_a_marine_ny208.jpg?x=284&y=345&q=85&sig=jH9YsO9a7QZsvdZU.5MmPA--

[acptulsa]

On the one hand, I'd have refrained out of respect for his poor family. On the other, I have hours of WWII propaganda at home and they sure didn't shy away from showing dead GIs when they thought it served their purposes. Not one bit.

[Reason]

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
~Donald Rumsfeld


http://nbm.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b8c069e20120a5483a0f970b-pi

Personally, I applaud the AP for taking a stand on this.

If pictures like this were shown more often the American sheeple wouldn't find it so easy to bury their heads in the sand.

[clb09]

YouTube - Reality of War (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpAh57n1f4)

[MelissaWV]

I think there's a big piece of this missing, and that is that the family asked this not be shown. I also give credit to Gates for not demanding something be done. You can be disgusted, but you can't use the Gov's rather heavy heel to force things not to air.

I find it tasteless to be showing these pictures when the family specifically asked they not be shown.

I don't think it should be outlawed, either.

[clb09]

I think there's a big piece of this missing, and that is that the family asked this not be shown. I also give credit to Gates for not demanding something be done. You can be disgusted, but you can't use the Gov's rather heavy heel to force things not to air.

A private company, Associated Press, and the private family had a deal which apparently the AP broke.

I get uncomfortable when the "Defense" Secretary and the full weight of the Department of "Defense" decide that these private parties should adhere to the unconstitutional rules of the Federal apparatus.

[SimpleName]

You would think the AP would at least blur their faces. They should've done what the family was asked. Quite distasteful of them to run it anyway. Saying that, I still prefer the media to show such "hardcore" imagery. You can't ignore it when there is such horrific imagery. It stays instilled in your brain forever.