Helen Thomas: Pentagon Manages War Coverage By Limiting Coffin Pictures

[Sticky]

Pentagon Manages War Coverage By Limiting Coffin Pictures
'Body Count' News Fueled Antiwar Sentiment During Vietnam Campaign

POSTED: 6:49 p.m. EST October 29, 2003
UPDATED: 6:51 p.m. EST October 29, 2003

WASHINGTON -- One of the lessons the U.S. government apparently learned from the Vietnam War is this: Don't let the American public see coffins arriving home with U.S. casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

>snip>

In a move by the Bush administration to suppress distressing images of war, the Defense Department issued a directive last March on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that declared:
"There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein (Germany) airbase or Dover (Del.) base, (and) to include interim stops."
Under the Pentagon clamp down, American fatalities will be reduced to statistics and the public will see little of the human side of the war.

Some in the Pentagon still blame the news media for the loss of South Vietnam. In a never-again mood after that war, the U.S. military planners designed the blueprint for future wars to limit media access -- as we saw later in Grenada and the first Gulf War.

Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, a Defense Department spokeswoman, says the ban on media coverage stems from a compassion for the families, "to protect their wishes and privacy during the time of greatest loss and grief."

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/2593688/detail.html

[PapaClay]

1. Not to Worry.

The internet is profoundly changing public communication and they don't control the internet (yet). People no longer have to rely soley on broadcast and print media.

This is why the scope of pre-war and current protest is larger than at any comparable time in the past. They have been put on the defensive and will likely remain in that posture.

[cybildisobedience]

2. watch this issue

The media/right wing take (same thing, really), is that this is an OLD policy that pre-dates Bush. They even use words like "Clinton-era policy." That is not the case -- Clinton WAS photographed with returning coffins of slain soldiers. In fact, mediawhoresonline.com has some links to poignant images right now.
I know Helen Thomas is a gem, and I'm not criticizing her here -- just want to issue a reminder that this is one of those issues that the Repukes will try to blur, like Enron -- "BOTH parties took money!" It's important to place the blame for the lack of images of slain soldiers right where it belongs - the Bush White House.