The Wheeling, W.Va., Intelligencer ran the photo inside and an editorial explaining why it did "after hours of debate."
They defended their choice thusly:
"Too often, we fear, some Americans see only the statistics, the casualty counts released by the Department of Defense," the newspaper wrote. "We believe it is important for all of us to understand that behind the numbers are real men and women, sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice, for us."
No matter how how preoccupied or stressed out or caught up in my personal moment, no day passes in which I don't think of our uniformed men and women at home and abroad and thank God for their service and for the service of those who have come before. We are indebted to them. I am sick of the arrogance of the folks at newspapers and news networks who think they are the only ones who get it, that they are the only ones with a sense of gravity about what is going on in the world and what our men and women in uniform face on our behalf.
How shameful for a news organization to be so disrespectful as to publish this photo in defiance of the wishes of the family of the young man therein.
No, in fact. They don't get it at all. Call me cynical, but I think this is a ploy to diffuse and de-fuse the rancor many are voicing for what our legislators have been doing at home. Doubly shameful, I think.
This is why readership of newspapers is plummeting.
8 comments:
Yep. I could write pages on the deciet of much of the media, but it's preaching to the choir for most of your readers. I feel good when I watch the corrupt outlets numbers fall. They deserve their fate.
Aren't these the same newspapers who wouldn't print the Mohammed cartoons a few years back?
Yeah. I thought so.
Guess we know whose side they're on...
1. Thanks everso for your help the other day!!!!
2. On topic- these things come up from time to time. I've never seen it with similar pictures of foreigners or bad guys, just our own soldiers, allies, or citizens. The WTC video was, I think, the last time I saw this conversation.
I mean, probably everyone going through troubles doesn't want his or her face in the front page, but we keep plastering them on there. We just seem to have this standard confusion about it.
Is it the fact that we can see his face, or the fact that he can be identified? Is it because he died, or because his family said no? Because it's taken only minutes before he died, rather than a couple of days? Because we see the blood?
Why do we have this reaction to this picture, but AP pictures of dead people after a Baghdad street explosion give us no pause?
What makes this picture something that makes us angry, but the picture of the almost dead Mike Strank, Harlon Block, and Frank Sousley inspires us?
Just musing, you've made me think.
Alleged news organization. AKA Associated Press.
Alleged newspaper. AKA Wheeling Intelligencer.
Just another left wing ploy to divert attention from the economy. As intelligent, as meaningful, and as offensive as the flatulence in the video below.
Stranger
Smoke and mirrors, distract the public from the failings of the Obamanation... So what if the family and military are outraged, they'll get over it. Freedom of the press is sancrosanct... Yeah, right... it's ALL BS, and the reason newspapers and the AP and UPI are dying!
I have too often, had to interact with the media in the course of my day.
The bias, slant and flat out untruths put out there just amazes me. I've seen them splice segments of an interview they did with an investigator and then blend it so the end product is a statement THAT WAS NEVER MADE. Words strung together and digitally mastered to support THEIR theory.
What respect I had for them, upon seeing what is done with the truth, is gone. Long gone.
I have "no statement" down to an art.
In my line of work I am occasionally interviewed by newspaper reporters, and have never been quoted correctly. The reporter always manages to "forget" a word or phrase so that what it appears I might have said supports the reporter's assertion. I have become so gun shy about this that I no longer grant permission to use my name or quote me in print.
Bottom line is that the AP should not have published this photo, especially when the family of the fallen Marine asked them not to. It is the height of disrespect for them to have done so, and I will not forget.
Good point regarding the Mohammed cartoons. By all means, let's not offend f*cking Muslims. But Americans who've just lost a son? Screw 'em. But only after hours of debate.
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