Bloodless War and the Expurgation of Reality
Because, whether you know it or not, you can’t handle the truth.
The death of Lance Corporal Joshua M. Bernard was one of 4,257 (and counting) US casualties in Iraq. The difference between his and the 4,256 before it: a picture taken by an Associated Press photographer moments after he sustained the mortal wound.
The photo, included as part of a tribute to the late soldier, was distributed by the Associated Press to major newspapers throughout the United States.
Secretary of Defense Gates today blasted the AP for carrying the image, calling it “appalling” and lacking in “common decency” — and many news outlets (at E&P we are now surveying this) are refusing to run it.
Just one example: this paper carried the package but in an editor’s note explains that it refused to run the picture finding it in “poor taste.” Others, such as the Salt Lake Tribune, have followed this path, deleting the photo from galleries that they run with the story.
- Rare AP Photo Captures Deadly Attack on U.S. Marine in Afghanistan – Pentagon Protests
by Greg Mitchell for The Huffington Post
David Bauder of the Associated Press writes that the Huffington Post article “provoked a vigorous debate” – and goes on to quote a former Marine who states that “Death and the ugliness of war is not something we look forward to but a necessity to put the war in its proper context”. I am in agreement, but I would like to know how it is that some might be opposed to the decision to print what happened just as the camera saw it.
Would these people settle for sloppy forgeries in lieu of actual photographs?
Are they aware of the gravity which news censorship carries in shaping public opinion?
… or are they drinking the Bush-Cheney wars-are-meant-to-be-funded-and-not-seen Kool-aid?
