How To Treat Images of Death?
EmailThe AP is drawing some fire from Defense Secretary Gates for providing photos to its media clients of a Marine mortally wounded in Afghanistan, Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard. Some newspapers made the choice to publish, others did not.
Z. Byron Wolf draws a provocative comparison:
Images of American dead returning from war abroad have divided public opinion for decades. It is worth remembering, as this debate is stoked again, another graphic image of death that was recently reported on in the media and utilized by American politicians:- the YouTube video of Neda Soltan, a young Iranian woman gunned downed during a protest against the flawed Presidential election there. The video which went internationally viral and made her an icon for activists in Iran.
Defense Sec. Robert Gates said he was “appalled” at the release of the photo of Bernard and was heartened that few media outlets selected to publish it. Earlier this year, Gates lifted an 18 year ban on images of the coffins of war dead returning to US shores if family members approved media coverage.
But in the case of Neda, the video of her death, recorded and distributed after the Western media had been restricted from reporting in Iran, was noted by President Obama, when he said at a press conference, “It’s heartbreaking. And I think that anybody who sees it knows that there is something fundamentally unjust about that.”
And the video of Neda’s death was the subject of speeches by two Republican lawmakers in the US Capitol.
First, on June 22, Arizona’s Sen. John McCain gave an emotional speech at 2:15 pm about the video. He quoted from news reports on the video and described it: “Two men kneel against the — next to the woman and press on her chest screaming. The camera filming him zooms in on her face, her face turns to the side and blood streams out of her nose and mouth. Neda, don't be afraid says one man. Another man seeks to put her in the car and the video stops.”
He quotes from an unnamed Twitter account who reported on the video: “Neda died with opened eyes. shame on us who lived with closed eyes. they killed Neda, but not her voice was another.”
And he goes on to wonder what effect the democracy movement in Iran and the images of Neda should have on U.S. foreign policy.
“A debate has been going on as to how much the United States of America, its President, the Congress, and the American people should speak out in favor and in support of these brave Iranians… and their quest for the fundamentals of freedom and democracy that we have enjoyed for more than a couple of centuries.”
On June 23, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a Michigan Republican, was more blunt at 8:10pm. He stood in front of an oversized picture of Neda as he gave a speech on the House floor, deriding President Obama for not being more active in condemning the Iranian election.
“Iranians watch as the president holds out an open hand to those who opened fire on protesters,” said McCotter, later adding, “How we aid pro-democracy Iranians will remind the world who we are. We are Americans. The revolutionary children of freedom who have lived and died defending our liberty and extending it to the enslaved and oppressed. We will do no less today in support of our Iranian brothers and sisters. Today, Neda’s voice calls to our consciences and warns that the fate of Iranian's liberty is entwined with the fate of American security. We must not miss this generational chance for freedom, one that ensures a rogue regime's implosion, prevents a nuclear confrontation and ensures that Neda and other martyrs shall not have died in vain. We must seize this moment and help Iranians seize their freedom. That's what we do.”
- George Stephanopoulos
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My son is a Marine and has spent three tours in Iraq and been through all the rough bull—-, shot at, bombed, as well as been sucked into a ambush and through all this he has been one of the lucky ones to come home, as all our troops should. If this had been him in that situation I would not have wanted the world to see him in that condition, I would want to remember him as I left him and would want his family and friends to do the same. A proud dad and American
Posted by: Bob | September 4, 2009, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
Our country has to take a stance against the media who are just interested in saying they were the first to report. Walter Cronkite served his media post during Viet Nam and I never witnessed his lack of respect for the service citizens in this war. He was always mindful that they were someone’s spouse, son or daughter. I just posted on my aarp that the media will display America as a rootless and sabbage environment because we have a Black President who said that he or our country was not entitled to proper respect. When the media disrespect our reputation they leave us vulnerable for hatred all across the world. The media is out of control. There are no moral values that apply to the media. If you are in the media field, you should feel so ashamed for yourself and your country.
Posted by: Snoodles10 | September 4, 2009, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
We see all too much death and destruction in the news.
Every time we say”isn’t there any good news?”, we get one report, then it’s right back to death and destruction.
The media will never change.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | September 4, 2009, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Somehow so very different than coverage of other horrors. I am entirely opposed to graphic scenes of American Soldiers deaths and cannot find the words to express my reasoning. Don’t fully understand it myself.
Posted by: witchband | September 4, 2009, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
We are too sensitive to death. It is a natural component of life. We are born dying, no one escapes it.
Now the majority of people in this country no longer kill for meat we are further removed from the reality of death just as not see animals copulate removes us from sex. These things are a part of life and we should all be aware. Mental illness, cancer and so on all shameful things not to be talked about or seen. This European condition of hiding from life has affected us all.
Should we see pictures of the deaths in our military, yes every grizzly moment and maybe we will not let our leaders be so eager to engage others. I felt the need to strike out on 9-11 like many but after being in Viet Nam I also knew the cost on both side.
Politicians may start wars but they need to get the hell out of the way and let the killing git done and if they are not able to do that then maybe it should not begin, war is not about hearts and minds unless you are shooting them.
Posted by: Gerald Zollar | September 4, 2009, 4:24 pm 4:24 pm
The press should be kept off the battle field they have no business being there in the first place. We don’t allow our fighting women on the battle field so why this *****
Posted by: kelly | September 4, 2009, 4:25 pm 4:25 pm
The video of Neda’s death was not shot by an embedded American “journalist” who was being paid for their work by an organization working for ratings. The release of those photos is shameful journalism – it is NOT reporting of the news – it is taking advantage of the grief of a family whose wonderful son worked very hard for our freedom. Shame on the Associated Press for capitalizing on that grief. I was always proud of the US for not publishing graphic pictures and videos of death and destruction in respect to families unlike in other areas of the world. No longer.
Posted by: Sandi Gordon | September 4, 2009, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
Once again the high and mighty all knowing media take it upon themselves to decide how this young man should be portrayed and remembered, in spite of his family’s wishes. Shame on Curley and the rest of the elitist editorial board at AP.
How would you feel if it was your son, brother or husband? He signed up to serve our country, not the disgusting moralizing posers of the AP.
Posted by: chris | September 4, 2009, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
It is always a sad news whenever we hear a U.S. Service person gets killed in Combat. These brave man and woman volounteered to extend the freedom we enjoy. The political cause of these conflicts should be worth dying for, if not it is the politicians to be blamed. Sacrificing life for freedom is one of Americas greatest values, we are not coward, we are warriors. We have to bond together and support our troops and pray that they all come home safe.
Posted by: Amando Javier | September 4, 2009, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
Here, Gerald Zollar is quite balanced in putting his comment in the right perspective.Truth is sometimes bitter.We have to be brave to face that,if it comes in that way.
Posted by: Prem Nizar Hameed | September 4, 2009, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
I still can’t get used to watching actors on detective shows doing autopsies and showing dead people, blood and guts.
Only a few years ago they didn’t do that…now it’s common practice and it sickens me personally.
The media likes to “shock” people, thinking they will watch their sites more.
Personally, I quit watching those shows….and people can just choose not to watch these things also.
The media has just gone crazy thinking most of the public enjoys seeing this stuff.
I had enough of watching news from Vietnam…I don’t want to watch more.
Posted by: Alida Antonia Cornelius | September 4, 2009, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
These terrible things should be reported as fully as possible! Maybe this is the only way our politicians and citizens can be reminded of the true horrors of what our children are being sent into and this will help us to get out of that area where we aren’t wanted anyway.
Posted by: Ron Williams | September 4, 2009, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Don’t censor the truth, no matter how unpleasant. Censorship guarantees that problems won’t get corrected. We don’t need to become another Iran, where thought is tightly controlled!
Posted by: Truth is often unpleasant | September 4, 2009, 5:15 pm 5:15 pm
“Defense Secretary Robert Gates personally lobbied the Associated Press in an unsuccessful bid that the news agency HONOR A FAMILY’S WISH THAT IT NOT distribute a graphic photograph showing the final moments of their son’s life”
That’s the HUGE difference between this case and Neda’s. The video of Neda’s death honored her passion for freedom and continued the work of her last moments. Distribution the picture of this Marine was a direct insult to his family, something which he did not want.
Certainly it was legal, but Americans have the right to be disgusted and upset by the AP’s inconsiderate and crass behavior. Gate’s request and efforts in this context were entirely appropriate.
Posted by: jhw539 | September 4, 2009, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
A really tough situation. Do you show the pictures, risk hurting the family, and let the teens the military is trying to recruit see the reality before they sign up? Or do you bury the pictures and allow teens to naively sign up for the military thinking they’re going off to fight for “freedom” and “glory” without truly understanding the risk they run of permanent injury or death?
My personal preference would be to show the pictures. It would be more honest. Would it change anything for the recruits? Who knows. Teens always seem to believe “I am, therefore I’m always going to be” but at least they’d be warned.
Posted by: jan | September 4, 2009, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
So we can show murdered civillians but not murdered soldiers? Why not? Hell it’s already on Al-Jazeera, BBC, and every other news outlet. Why is only in America the pictures of the consequences of war eliminated…
It’s it perhaps to keep the wars and atrocites out of public domain, and have people reconsider the human cost of our reckless foreign policy?
We owe it to the soliders living and dead to show what their lives are on a daily basis, and what sacrifices our agenda has called them to make in our name.
Otherwise they are nameless, faceless non enities that either are forgotten or even worse unknown.
These people existed, and there is a human interest in documenting their lives and their untimely deaths, as a result of our support for these acts of foreign policy.
You can’t honor their cause, without honoring their sacrifice. To do any less, would infer they died for NOTHING, and should be forgotten…
In the end who’s agenda is being served by sanitizing acts of war. Only the perpetrators, not the victims, civillian or otherwise… You cannot get around that.
Sanitizing war makes it acceptable, and that only leads to more death and destruction.
Posted by: jafo | September 4, 2009, 5:49 pm 5:49 pm
The realities of “war” must be presented. I’m sorry the family gets hurt, but the world needs to see the results of violence.
Posted by: Let the truth be knwon | September 4, 2009, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
So interesting that people will comment on “what we owe” service men and women. I can guarantee you, from someone who grew up as a military brat and is an Army wife, that service members don’t feel like the average citizen is doing them a favor by viewing pictures of a soldier’s final moments. Quite frankly, the service members are still nameless and faceless. My guess is that about 99% of these citizens who decide to take a look at the photos before heading out to drop the kids off at soccer immediately forget the service member’s name and face. I’m pretty sure that about that same percentage won’t alter their lifestyle or do anything to honor that sacrifice. So let’s just cut the hypocracy. This doesn’t honor soldiers. It doesn’t honor sacrifice to disregard the families wishes and you aren’t ‘entitled’ to take a peek. If you support this decision, what is it you are planning to do to ‘honor’ the sacrifice now that you’ve see the ‘reality’ of war? My guess is a big fat nothing. The family should be able to decide. You would want that for yourself. You would want that for our children. You give up a lot to be a soldier; this soldier gave up everything. His family shouldn’t have to give up the power to make this decision. That’s honest.
Posted by: maggiemay | September 4, 2009, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
the photos shows realities,the reporter is just doing his JOB period.those go to kill or to be kill.we want to see how those heros die.
Posted by: Ahmed | September 4, 2009, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
I observed many brave GI’s severely wounded on the battle field in Vietnam and the fear they had of dying from their wounds were inescapable. No matter how much they screamed and yelled after getting injured, the moments just before death were very peaceful. They never wanted their love ones to know that they were afraid. The final moments of a soldier’s life and his death is very private and should remain with his fellow soldiers in the unit that he served with and not plastered all over the front pages of some silly news paper.
Posted by: johnnyle | September 4, 2009, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
“Why is only in America the pictures of the consequences of war eliminated…”
Perhaps because we like to consider ourselves a ‘civilized’ nation? Or maybe, just maybe, as Americans we should respect the wishes of a family of fellow Americans who are grieving the loss of their beloved son? As in “united we stand”?
I can’t imagine ANYONE would want the last moments of their child’s life, moments filled with great suffering, splattered all over the news. To ignore the requests of the family and do so can only be called self serving… done in hopes of attaining higher ratings or to support anti-war sentiments. Let us not forget that America was born of great sacrifice. Without the grimness of war, we would not be enjoying the freedoms we have today. Generation after generation has felt the profound loss that goes hand in hand with war. We need no further reminders. A man’s life should not be reduced to cheap copy. This man in particular is deserving of our greatest respect.
Posted by: disgusted | September 4, 2009, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
As a retired Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer, I was thrilled when the military leaders started to allow embeds in tactical units on the battlefield. There is still lingering resistance to media embeds on the part of some field commanders, and an incident like this will certainly strengthen their continued belief that the media simply does not “get” it. I can understand the photographer taking the shot “in the moment”, but releasing the photo of a dying service man or woman for publication should be the determination of the parents, not some editor. Photography of the caskets of the KIAs when they are deplaning at Dover AFB is at the option of the parents. Certainly the exposure of a loved one’s last moments deserves the same respect as their casket. I have lost my respect for AP. I am sure their decision to publish the photo will only serve to greatly restrict the flow of information from the battlefield to the media.
Posted by: Gale L. Stienon | September 4, 2009, 6:33 pm 6:33 pm
As the wife of a soldier who has been deployed to this region twice for more than three years, I can tell you that the most striking thing I have learned is the painful lack of concern for how PERSONAL this experience is for these families. I have had people talk to me as if my husband had no rights because he was a soldier as if somehow as a soldier his life was not valuable, that he signed up to die. It’s insulting. Well, the death of someone who you either you love deeply as a husband, child or family member is unbelievably personal and we as a nation need to take a step back and realize the sacrifice we are asking from these people and stand up for their right to dignity. This was an insulting moment for all military families and frankly, that is the ONLY thing that should count.
Posted by: Give them a break | September 4, 2009, 6:55 pm 6:55 pm
We should consider the motivation behind Secretary Gates’ objections to publishing the pictures. He is not stupid enough to forget that what turned the nation against the Viet Nam war was photographs of wonded and dying soldiers. The family has something legitimate to say about this, but the Secretary of Defense is simply trying to hide. Much of the impetus behind the “embedded” journalist program was to ensure that journalists covering this war had agreed in advance to military censorship over anything they saw, wrote or photographed. This is a true tragedy for the family, whether it is published or not, but for the military it is simply bad PR which might cause them to lose some of their largely unsupervised free hand in continuing their wars in the Middle East. To allow the military to censor what we see and here from there is no different than allowing the governemnt to censor what we see and here from what is happening within our own borders. And we all know where that sort of censorhip leads. Do we really want to be another Iran or North Korea?
Posted by: Gardoglee | September 4, 2009, 7:07 pm 7:07 pm
I’m a veteran who was assigned to the 25th Inf, Schofield BKS, Hawaii.
They should release every single photo of every single casualty and post them on the news every single night. It is a sin what both these lying weasel administrations have done to kill all these innocent soldiers for absolutely nothing. Obama is a bald faced liar and Bush was a bald face liar. We know that. We know the war was a lie!
As a veteran, I know damn good and well what it was like to have no clue as to what was going on while they shipped us to God knows where. I bet if Cheney or Obama’s daughters were in the infantry, they wouldn’t be so quick to continue this absolute lie of a war.
Posted by: GI Joe | September 4, 2009, 7:45 pm 7:45 pm
This IS the reality of war. I suggest all you would be soldiers consider for a moment what you are signing up for. Heading half way around the world to fight for motives you have no idea about under the guise of freedom and democracy. It is all an illusion. Dont sign your life away for this or any goverment. This government does not care about you.
Posted by: Gary | September 4, 2009, 9:01 pm 9:01 pm
I am not opposed to the press on the battle field, they serve an honorable purpose in this regard. However, when a family makes a plea to not publish photos of a loved one, the press should honor that request. Period. The AP was wrong in this case, very wrong. The editor who decided to go ahead should be dismissed.
Posted by: Steven clemens | September 4, 2009, 10:10 pm 10:10 pm
We can not return their loved ones back to life. But let us honor their wishes of not publishing photos they object to. There are many other photos available which show the reality of war.
Posted by: Pedro Alfonso | September 4, 2009, 10:58 pm 10:58 pm
The realities of war should be made available to the American people. These are not a bunch of boys playing in the yard with their G.I. Joes. Withholding visual information makes the wars our country engages in too sterile in our minds. Our sons and daughters need to know see the the graphic truth of war before they can make an informed decision to serve their country in this manner. All of us, as taxpayers and voters need to see the realities as well. God bless our soldiers and their families for the sacrifices they make.
Posted by: Susan | September 5, 2009, 2:27 am 2:27 am
It is probably time that America and the rest of the world grows up to the fact that dead and destruction is the work of a war! If the shock of seeing blood and gore is what it takes to wake people up to action for or against the situation then good! Damned right!
Get angry start blubbering like idiots but dig for the facts and do your own research not just listen to what your Politicians say or the mostly Biased news feeds.
Get involved in influencing the decisions made in your name!
Get off the stick and talk too someone America!
Or have we turned into a nation of quivering jellyfishes content to sit on our thumbs and let the other guy make the hard choices that affect our futures?
Posted by: natamexpat | September 5, 2009, 11:19 am 11:19 am
“Distribution the picture of this Marine was a direct insult to his family, something which he did not want. Certainly it was legal, but Americans have the right to be disgusted and upset by the AP’s inconsiderate and crass behavior. Gate’s request and efforts in this context were entirely appropriate.”
jhw539, it’s rare that I agree with you in these blogs, but I certainly do here. Amen.
Posted by: Stacey | September 5, 2009, 11:40 am 11:40 am
With all due respect to the family of our lost Marine and those appalled by the photo. I say publish it, make more aware of the sacrifices and harshness of war. I too question the motive behind Secretary Gates request. Bad PR…I say what PR. I live in Detroit and have to use the internet and rely on the reports from the rear detachment commander to hear about what my son is experiencing in Afghanistan. If more people were aware of the Afghan culture they would understand their is little positive we can do by waging a war there.
Posted by: Sandy Peplinski | September 5, 2009, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
How to treat images of death? You HONOR their sacrifice, not exploit it for shock news reports by NOT showing their actual suffering. We have an idea from Hollywood how people die, but does the media need to treat death like a Roman Gladiator bloodthirsty mob? This is where our country has stooped. Back to the days of the fall of the Roman Empire, where sports , self indulgence, promiscuity, homosexuality, and domestic violence drove this empire off the cliff.
Posted by: Thinking a Little Harder | September 5, 2009, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
I wish the secretary was as appalled by the fact that we continue to send young men and women off to die in questionable missions.
I truly feel for the families who do not wish to see their brave loved ones as they spent their last minutes before dying. I ALSO feel that NOT showing the reality of what is happening to our soldiers is a form of injustice to them as it serves to “block” to how unjust and undignified war is.
Posted by: stew | September 7, 2009, 8:58 am 8:58 am