thememoryhole + pictures of the dead.

Hobbes

I noticed since thememoryhole.org got the photos that everyone wants the place has been down.

The main page is down but you can still see the site if you go via google or avoid the first page.

I know people were going on about it being disrepectful but after seeing the pictures that is not what they were trying to convey at all. If you check the pictures they are showing how much treatment they get.

Shame Bush and his ilk don't want people to see the dead bodies.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/coffin_photos/dover/gallery.htm

Sand

Shame Bush and his ilk don't want people to see the dead bodies.

Its a continuation of a policy that has existed since 1991 that photos of the coffins being transferred not be released. It was apparently drawn up in accordance with the views of the majority of families - the military afterall have to respect that if only one family doesnt want the images of their dead shown then then they shouldnt be.
There have been perhaps two breaches since 1991 before the memoryhole breach.

There are absolutely no bans on media coverage of funerals, once the media get the families permisson of course. How many funerals have been covered? Theyre not worried about causing offence are they?

This just seems like a cheap way of working around asking the families permisson to me. I remember the outrage and screams of horror when Bushs ad campaign included a shot of a body being carried from 9/11.

Images of the dead have been used previously as political pawns - 3 television networks apparently played a split screen of President Bush Snr giving a "jocular" speech and coffins arriving back from the Panama invasion back in 1989.

Hobbes

Originally posted by Sand
There are absolutely no bans on media coverage of funerals, once the media get the families permisson of course. How many funerals have been covered? Theyre not worried about causing offence are they?

Quite a few, at least on Sky News, and even had the families talk on TV.

This just seems like a cheap way of working around asking the families permisson to me. I remember the outrage and screams of horror when Bushs ad campaign included a shot of a body being carried from 9/11.

You don't see any dead bodies in the pictures. If anything you see how well the military treat their dead.

Sand

Quite a few, at least on Sky News, and even had the families talk on TV.

So be satisfied with that - those families were okay with the coverage - that does not mean all families are. The military is not the PR agent for the casualties. Their job is to return the dead to their families who are the final authority on what is and isnt okay. Exploiting the military to get these images is just a cheap shot.

You don't see any dead bodies in the pictures. If anything you see how well the military treat their dead.

Didnt we see how well the rescue workers treated the dead in 9/11? Wasnt there a flag over the body in that ad? The outrage was great despite that.

shotamoose

The policy has been unevenly applied since 1991 - for example Clinton allowed filming of the arrival of bodies from the USS Cole bombing and Kosovo.

Reporting of bodies ariving at bases apart from the main US military mortuary at Dover was previously allowed, e.g. German bases during the war in Afghanistan. Then a blanket 'system-wide' embargo was imposed for the Iraq war. Why? What changed, except the volume of casualties?

Zombrex

On one hand I think it is important that the US media are allowed to report on every aspect of the war in Iraq. They were not showing any individual coffins that could be identified so I don't think they could be seen as offending the families.

On the other hand, I think it is a bit rediculous that this is being billed as showing the "real cost of war." What exactly did the American public think was happening??

Showing me a picture of a plane full of coffins doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know about the war. I am more disturbed that it takes such an obvious and manipulative photo to actually stir the emotions of the American people. It is like the child who believes the world disappears when they close their eyes.

Victor

Originally posted by Wicknight
Showing me a picture of a plane full of coffins doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know about the war.

I know what you are saying, but it actually does tell me something more. It tells me the remains are being treated respectfully, not just piled 6 high in a refrigerated container and shipped once a month. It acknowledges better that what was once alive (in the form of a head and shoulders shot) is now, unfortunately, dead (these photos). It humanises the bland statisitics into real people. Individuals not numbers.

Stalin is attributed with "One man's death is a tragedy, a million deaths is merely a statistic."

All in all I think the release of the photos is a good thing (not that the deaths are a good thing), they are not some dirty secret to hide away.