Second-Day Lede
Friday, April 23, 2004
We see dead people
In a solemn ceremony, dignitaries gathered in Hoboken, New Jersey, to honor America's returning war dead in 1918.
By its very definition, Second-Day Lede is supposed to be following a discreet distance behind the news, not out ahead of it. But we've been covering the flag-draped coffin story all week, and today, suddenly, it's breaking news all over again, and everybody's reporting live about the dead.
Not only has the media machinery awakened and taken notice of the firing of a civilian worker in Kuwait (and her coworker husband) whose photo of 20 flag-draped coffins was published in Sunday's Seattle Times, but as you've surely seen and heard by now, under the Freedom of Information Act, Thememoryhole.org successfully received copies of photos taken by the military of remains being repatriated at Dover Air Force Base in Maryland, and then made them available online.
For those just joining us, there was no ban against photos when the doughboys came home from the first World War. Nor was there a ban against photos of the living or dead in the Civil War (caution -- this one isn't flag-draped). Can anybody tell the class why there was no ban on photos of our Revolutionary War dead, either? The military tried, with some success, to censor coverage of World War II, but Ernie Pyle's honest words painted the picture vividly. By the Korean War, combat photographer David Douglas Duncan (<--check out the name of the celebrity photographer who snapped a shot of Duncan during World War II) was on the scene, with gritty black-and-white images of death -- again, not flag-draped -- in Life magazine. Duncan went on to cover Vietnam, as did an army of reporters, including for the first time a television contingent. We saw so many Americans coming home from Vietnam in flag-draped coffins that the image was immortalized in song by Country Joe McDonald: "Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box." Commentators at the time and later historians wrote that the images of those remains led to the nation's disillusionment with the war. Duncan himself became so outraged that he publicly denounced the war, and the actions of the man who had taken his picture, in a book he published on his own dime, I Protest! I can't find it for sale anywhere online, but here's how it begins:
"I am no kook, hippie, hawk, or dove. I am just a veteran combat photographer and foreign correspondent who cares intensely about my country and the role we are playing - and assigning to ourselves - in the world of today. And I want to shout a loud protest at what has happened at Khesanh and in all of Vietnam."
We've all heard by now that the ban against images of returning military coffins came from Bush the first, who, legend has it, didn't like the split-screen television news coverage, his live speech on one side, the returning dead on the other. By contrast, his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, pinned medals on the flag-draped coffins returning during his administration, Bill Clinton not only allowed such images but went to Dover himself, and so far Bush the second has yet to attend a single funeral.
And into the midst of all that dropped the news about yet another war loss: the death in Afghanistan of young hero-turned-hero Pat Tillman, the NFL football player who gave up his dream-come-true life to join the Army and defend his country. Whether or not the nation sees his remains receive the honors they deserve, it mourns his loss.
But wait, there's more: We also have the controversy over photos of poor Princess Diana as she breathed her last, broadcast this week by CBS News's 48 Hours. That story reminded me of the fire chief I once knew who made a point of standing between the cameras and the victims at any fire or accident scene. It's too bad he wasn't in Paris that night.
And in a related matter, CNN accidentally posted a batch of pre-written and produced obituaries for a bunch of well-known people who aren't quite dead yet, obits that all list the year of death as 2001.
In a solemn ceremony, dignitaries gathered in Hoboken, New Jersey, to honor America's returning war dead in 1918.
By its very definition, Second-Day Lede is supposed to be following a discreet distance behind the news, not out ahead of it. But we've been covering the flag-draped coffin story all week, and today, suddenly, it's breaking news all over again, and everybody's reporting live about the dead.
Not only has the media machinery awakened and taken notice of the firing of a civilian worker in Kuwait (and her coworker husband) whose photo of 20 flag-draped coffins was published in Sunday's Seattle Times, but as you've surely seen and heard by now, under the Freedom of Information Act, Thememoryhole.org successfully received copies of photos taken by the military of remains being repatriated at Dover Air Force Base in Maryland, and then made them available online.
For those just joining us, there was no ban against photos when the doughboys came home from the first World War. Nor was there a ban against photos of the living or dead in the Civil War (caution -- this one isn't flag-draped). Can anybody tell the class why there was no ban on photos of our Revolutionary War dead, either? The military tried, with some success, to censor coverage of World War II, but Ernie Pyle's honest words painted the picture vividly. By the Korean War, combat photographer David Douglas Duncan (<--check out the name of the celebrity photographer who snapped a shot of Duncan during World War II) was on the scene, with gritty black-and-white images of death -- again, not flag-draped -- in Life magazine. Duncan went on to cover Vietnam, as did an army of reporters, including for the first time a television contingent. We saw so many Americans coming home from Vietnam in flag-draped coffins that the image was immortalized in song by Country Joe McDonald: "Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box." Commentators at the time and later historians wrote that the images of those remains led to the nation's disillusionment with the war. Duncan himself became so outraged that he publicly denounced the war, and the actions of the man who had taken his picture, in a book he published on his own dime, I Protest! I can't find it for sale anywhere online, but here's how it begins:
"I am no kook, hippie, hawk, or dove. I am just a veteran combat photographer and foreign correspondent who cares intensely about my country and the role we are playing - and assigning to ourselves - in the world of today. And I want to shout a loud protest at what has happened at Khesanh and in all of Vietnam."
We've all heard by now that the ban against images of returning military coffins came from Bush the first, who, legend has it, didn't like the split-screen television news coverage, his live speech on one side, the returning dead on the other. By contrast, his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, pinned medals on the flag-draped coffins returning during his administration, Bill Clinton not only allowed such images but went to Dover himself, and so far Bush the second has yet to attend a single funeral.
And into the midst of all that dropped the news about yet another war loss: the death in Afghanistan of young hero-turned-hero Pat Tillman, the NFL football player who gave up his dream-come-true life to join the Army and defend his country. Whether or not the nation sees his remains receive the honors they deserve, it mourns his loss.
But wait, there's more: We also have the controversy over photos of poor Princess Diana as she breathed her last, broadcast this week by CBS News's 48 Hours. That story reminded me of the fire chief I once knew who made a point of standing between the cameras and the victims at any fire or accident scene. It's too bad he wasn't in Paris that night.
And in a related matter, CNN accidentally posted a batch of pre-written and produced obituaries for a bunch of well-known people who aren't quite dead yet, obits that all list the year of death as 2001.
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